UNIVERSITY

VICTORIA

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JBoofts

on i0Pt

Vol. XIII.

ant> Cbalfcaea

OF THE SERIES

A HISTORY OF EGYPT
From the End of the Neolithic Period to
the Death of Cleopatra VII.

30

b.c.

Vol. V.

EGYPT UNDER RAMESES THE GREAT

VOL. Y.

PUBLISHERS

NOTE

In the year 1894 Dr. Wallis Budge prepared for Messrs. Kegan
Paul, Trench, Triibner & Co. an elementary work on the
Egyptian language, entitled First Steps in Egyptian, and two
years later the companion volume, An Egyptian Reading
Book, with transliterations of all the texts printed in it, and
a full vocabulary. The success of these works proved that
they had helped to satisfy a want long felt by students of the
Egyptian language, and as a similar want existed among
students of the languages written in the cuneiform character,
Mr. L. W. King, of the British Museum, prepared, on the same
lines as the two books mentioned above, an elementary work on
the Assyrian and Babylonian languages ( First Steps in
Assyrian ), which appeared in 1898. These works, however,
dealt mainly with the philological branch of Egyptology and
Assyriology, and it was impossible in the space allowed to
explain much that needed explanation in the other branches of
these subjects that is to say, matters relating to the archaeology, history, religion, etc., of the Egyptians, Assyrians, and
Babylonians. In answer to the numerous requests which have
been made, a series of short, popular handbooks on the most
important branches of Egyptology and Assyriology have been
prepared, and it is hoped that these will serve as introductions
to the larger works on these subjects. The present is the
thirteenth volume of the series, and the succeeding volumes will
be published at short intervals, and at moderate prices.

JSoofts

on iSg^pt an& CbatDaca

EGYPT
UNDER

RAMESES THE GREAT

E. A.

WALLIS BUDGE,

M.A., Litt.D., D.Lrr.

KEEPER OF THE EGYPTIAN AND ASSYRIAN ANTIQUITIES

IN

THE BRITISH MUSEUM

ILLUSTRATED

LONDON

KEGAN PAUL, TRENCH, TRUBNER &

CO. Ltd.

Paternoster House, Charing Cross Road

1902
[

All rights reserved

LONDON
PRINTED BY GILBERT AND RIVINGTON, LIMITED,
st.

Johns house, clerkenwell, e.c.

I (o,

^/(fj/c/nj

!o t-f-L)

PREFACE

The

period of Egyptian History treated of in the present

volume begins with the reign of Raineses

king of the

XIXth

Rameses XII., the

the

I.,

first

Dynasty, and ends with that of

last

king of the

XXth

Dynasty,

and the narrative describes the principal events which

took place in Egypt and the various portions of her

Nubian and Asiatic Empire from about

1130.

b.c.

in

it

II.,

This period

is

Egypt attained

III.,

1400 to

one of great interest, for

are included the reigns of Seti

and Rameses

b.c.

I.,

and Rameses

and Menephthah, under which

to a very

high state of prosperity, and

became the mistress of the trade of the Red Sea and

The country was not given

making of military expeditions and raids, as

of the Mediterranean Sea.

up

to the

under the great kings of the XYIIIth Dynasty, but

has been truly, said that the general wealth

it

of the

country was greater during the reign of Rameses III.

than during that of Thothmes

of

III.,

although the hold

Egypt upon her Syrian, Libyan, and Nubian posses-

sions

was

less strong

and

less secure.

The additions

PREFACE

VI

to the temple of

Amen-Ra, the

king of the gods, the

lord of the thrones of the two lands (or, the world),

which were made by Seti

I.

and his son Rameses

and the lavish endowments and

gifts

made

to

II.,

the

temples of Thebes, Abydos, and Heliopolis, prove that

the wealth of these monarchs was exceedingly great,

and the splendour of the

capitals of the

South and the

North during their rule was never equalled either under

the preceding or succeeding dynasties.

Thebes and Tanis

the temples, the munificence

prosperity of the

The ruins

of

testify alike to the magnificence of

country.

of the kings, and

The

interest

of

the

modern

investigators

has centred

Rameses

and in the exploits of this king, hut a

II.,

chiefly

in

the

reign

of

little

consideration shows that his greatness was due

more

to the general condition of the country

and

to

the great length of his reign than to the ability which

he displayed in the rule of his kingdom.

His generals

and their armies were strong enough to guard Egypt

against invasion, but they, added nothing to the empire
of Egypt, and, in spite of the boastful description of
his victory over the
to be inscribed

Kheta which Rameses

II.

caused

on the walls of his temples, and the

high-flown utterances of the courtier scribe Pentaurt,

it

is

clear that the

king was unable completely to

vanquish the league of nations and tribes which fought

with the Kheta against him, and that
difficulty that

it

was only with

he succeeded in keeping his hold upon

any part of Palestine and Syria.

The famous

treaty

PREFACE
of

Rameses

II.

Vll

with the Kheta proves beyond doubt

that the king of

Egypt was obliged

their independence,

to

acknowledge

and to recognize the authority of

their prince Kheta-sar,

and

to enter into

obligations

which would prevent him from invading their country

When we

in the future.

amount of

Northern Syria under the XVIIIth Dynasty,

tions in
it is

consider the vast

which the Egyptians took during their expedi-

spoil

tolerably certain that

made the

treaty he

pressure.

It

is,

Rameses

did except

II.

would not have

under the strongest

of course, possible,

though improbable,

that he was led to act as he did because he wished to

develop trade between the merchants of the rapidly

growing

of the Delta

cities

and those of Northern

The Kheta wars were the chief military events

the reign of Rameses II., and the result of them, as

Syria.

of

far as

Egypt was concerned, was a reduction of her

On

dominions.
flourished,

the other hand, the arts and sciences

and the noble buildings of every kind which

sprang up as

if

by magic in

all

the great centres of

religious thought prove that the skill of the architect,

and the

artist,

ever been

and the workman was as great as

their style

was

it

had

not so good as that of the

IYth and Xllth Dynasties, but

this

was due both

to

change of idea^ and taste among the Egyptians, and to

the influence which was exerted on the arts and crafts

by foreign intercourse and

II. died

he

left his

trafficking.

When Rameses

country in a comparatively flourish-

ing condition, but his empire was crumbling away, and

PREFACE

Vlll

the events which took place under

that

the

Menephthah prove

around were only waiting

nations

III. the

made

for

Libyans and the Syrians with their

a strong attack

his

Under Rameses

death to invade Egyptian territory.

upon the Delta, and

says

it

allies

much

and the administration

for the ability of his generals

of his forces that the Egyptians were victorious.

king appears to have been the

first

This

Pharaoh who con-

structed fleets of boats which could be used both for

the purpose of war and of trade.

Under the succeeding

Rameses kings the power of Egypt declined

and the

condition

poverty-stricken

capital of the South,

that the priests

of

the

by the

fact

well illustrated

is

Amen-Ra were

Rameses IX. authorize them

rapidly,

of Thebes,

obliged to

levy taxes

to

make

on the

people for the maintenance of the temple of their god.

The papyri

of the period tell us that the royal tombs

of Thebes were plundered,

many

of the great

and that the mummies of

Pharaohs were stripped of every-

thing of value, and we

the finds

know from

at

Der

el-Bahari that the sacrilegious thieves even broke the

royal remains in pieces.

IX.

and

The Governments

Rameses X. prosecuted

violators of the tombs, but

the

the

of

Rameses

robbers

and

examination of the

witnesses revealed the fact that the pillaging of the

abodes of the dead was carried on in a systematic

manner with the connivance

officials,

of certain highly-placed

and, apparently, the wrecking

mummies and plundering

of their

of the

funeral

royal

furniture

PREFACE
Meanwhile the

continued.

IX

priests,

Rameses kings were unable

later

finding

that

the

to support the great

brotherhood of Amen-Ra, lost no opportunity of increasing their hold upon Thebes, and at length, on the

Rameses XII.,

death of

government

the

of

they boldly assumed

and

country,

the

high-priest,

their

Her-Heru, usurped the throne.

with

connexion

In

the

reign

Menephthah a

of

chapter has been added in the present volume on the

Exodus of the

Israelites

from Egypt.

In

it

an attempt

has been made to consider the narrative of the Exodus

given by Josephus in the light of recently ascertained
facts,
it is

of

and the unhistorical character of many parts of

made

plain

that

Manetho preserved

Egypt an Egyptian

in his History

tradition of a great exodus of

foreigners from the Delta there is no reason to doubt,

but until we have this writers account of

words no

final opinion of its

arrived at.

is

generally

Hyksos, and that

the

Book

in his

own

It is tolerably certain that the exodus of

which Josephus

Semitic foreigners to

which

it

value historically can be

of

known

it is

Exodus

as the

is

described in

of the

after the building of the treasure cities of

Raamses must,

that

expulsion of the

not that which

the Exodus

refers is

Israelites

Pithom and

certainly have taken place during the

reign of one of the successors of

Rameses

II.,

and more

than one exodus of Semites must have taken place

during the centuries which elapsed between the time of
the expulsion of the

Hyksos from the Delta and the

PREFACE

X
reign of

Eameses

Exodus appears
facts,

II.

The

narrative of the

Book

of

to the writer to be based on historical

and the archaeological evidence contained in

proves that

it is

it

no historical romance, as some have

endeavoured to show.

Its form indicates that

it

was

written a long time after the events happened which

describes, but the

main

fact that

it

an exodus of Israelites

took place as the result of the forced labour which they

were compelled to perform

unassailable, and all the

is

evidence goes to prove that a great body of Israelites

left

the

Delta between the

and Eameses

III.

If the

reigns

of

Eameses

exodus took place under

Menephthah the popular view that the king

was drowned
for his

in the

Eed Sea

mummified body has been recently

narrative of the

Book

of

it

is

of

Egypt

must be abandoned,

beyond doubt, and in connexion with

must be remembered that

II.

this

identified

subject

it

nowhere said in the

Exodus that the king was

drowned, but only the host of Pharaoh.

E. A.

Wallis Budge.

CONTENTS

PAGE

Chapter I. The Nineteenth Dynasty. The reign of

Rameses T. His treaty with the Kheta. Expedition AGAINST THE NUBIANS.
HlS TOMB AND
SARCOPHAGUS.
THE BOOK OF THE UNDERWORLD.
Description of the mummy of Rameses I. The
REIGN OF SETI I.
HlS EXPEDITION AGAINST THE
Shasu. Submission of Ruthen, and Kadesh, and
the Kheta tribes.
The Hypostyle Hall at
Karnak. Conquest of Libya, Nubia, Punt,
Syria, Cyprus, etc.
Working of the mines in
Wad! Hammamat and in the Sinaitic Peninsula.
Temple of Redesiyeh. Emerald mines of Mount
Zabara. The goddess Aasith. Plan of a gold

The Memnonium of Seti I. at Abydos.

The Gap. King List of Seti I. The Hall of
Columns. Tomb of Seti I., or Belzonis Tomb.
Book of the Praisings of Ra. Book of knowing
what is in the Underworld. The destruction
mine.

OF MANKIND.

I.
PHYSICAL
JOINT REIGN OF SETI I.
and Rameses II. Reign of Rameses II. His
NAME AND TITLES. WARS IN NUBIA, LIBYA, SYRIA,
etc. Nahr al-Kalb, or the Dog River.
Battle
AGAINST THE KHETA. LEAGUE OF KINGS OF ALEPPO,
Karkemish, Aradus, and Kadesh.
Egyptian

SARCOPHAGUS OF SETI

CHARACTERISTICS OF SETI

I.

CONTENTS

Xll

ACCOUNT OF THE WAR. ATTACK ON KADESH. CAPTURE of Kadesh. Personal valour of Rameses
II. WHEN SURROUNDED BY THE ENEMY.
FOUR DIVISIONS of the Egyptian army. The kings charioteer Menna.
His war horses and his tame
lion. Defeat of the Kheta.
Rameses returns
to Egypt. Renewed hostilities by the Kheta.
The treaty with the Kheta and their prince.
Rameses marries a Kheta princess. The princess
Ra-neferu. The possessed princess of Bekhten
OBELISKS OF RAMESES II.
HEALED BY KHENSU.
Abu Simbel. Tanis the capital of the north.
The Stele of four hundred years. Buildings
of Rameses II.
Ramesseum. Temple of Amen.
Gold mines of Wadi TTlaki. Stele of Kubban.
Desert wells dug by Rameses II. Canal from
Bubastis to the Bitter Lakes.
Wives and
family of Rameses II.
Tomb and mummy of
Rameses II. Physical characteristics of the
king. Vanity of Rameses II. and the decline
of Egypts power.
Mythical exploits of Rameses II. History of Sesostris by Herodotus.
History of Sesostris by Diodorus. The Reign
of Menephthah. Revolt in Libya. The kings
dream.
Defeat of the Libyans with great
MENEPHTHAHs HYMN OF PRAISE.
SLAUGHTER.
Mention of the Israelites doubtful. Opinions
of Egyptologists. Menephthahs building OperaDiscovery of his mummy. The king was
tions.
NOT DROWNED IN THE RED SEA

....

II.
The Exodus of the Israelites from
Narrative by Josephus. Amen-hetep,
Egypt.
son of Pa-Hapi the priest. The lepers. 80,000
MEN SENT TO THE QUARRIES. AVARIS AND THE
Shepherds. Osarsiph, the priest of Heliopolis.
200,000 Shepherds come to Avaris. Amen-hetep

Chapter

CONTENTS

Xlll

PAGE

THE KING ATTACKS THEM WITH 300,000 MEN. HlS

RETREAT TO ETHIOPIA. THE PRIEST OSARSIPH IDENTIFIED with Moses. The narrative of Josephus
UNHISTORICAL. EXODUS IN THE REIGN OF AmENLEGEND OF MANETHO.
HETEP III. IMPOSSIBLE.
Josephus confuses the expulsion of the Hyksos
with the Exodus described in the Bible.
Canaanitish traditions of an Exodus. Traditional Exodus under Menephthah. The Hebrews
and the corvee. Bameses II. the Oppressor of
The cities of Pithom and
the Hebrews.
Baamses. Zoan or Tanis. Goshen. The Wall
from Memphis to Pelusium. Canal of Bameses
II.
Building operations carried on by captives.
Meaning of the name.
Zaphnath-Paaneah.
POTIPIIERAH, AND ASENATH, AND ZAPHNATH-PAAneah names of the XXIInd Dynasty. Date
and Boute of the Exodus. Pithom, Succoth,
Etham, Pi-hahiroth, Migdol, Baal-Zephon. Dr.
Brugschs theory about the Exodus. Boute by
WAY OF THE GULFS OF THE SlRBONIAN BOG. THE
Bed Sea and the Yam-Suph. Modern theories
AS TO THE ROUTE OF THE ISRAELITES.
YlEWS OF
M. Naville. Settlement of the Exodus difficulties AT PRESENT IMPOSSIBLE.
THE BeIGN OF
Seti II., Mer-en-Ptah. His building operations.
The Scribe Anna and the Tale of the Two
Brothers.
The reign of Amen-Meses. The
reign of Sa-Ptah. End of the XIXth Dynasty.
Arsu the Syrian

The

Twentieth Dynasty. The reign

Period of anarchy in Egypt.
Mummy of Set-Nekht. Beign of Bameses III.
(Bhampsinitus). His names and titles. League
of Libyan tribes and attack upon Egypt. BaMESES III. DEFEATS THE LEAGUE AND MUTILATES

Chapter

III.

of Set-Nekht.

'

112

CONTENTS

XIV

PAGE

DEAD WARRIORS. LEAGUE OF SYRIAN TRIBES.

Their defeat on land and sea by Rameses III.
Victorious return to Egypt of Rameses III.
LADEN WITH SPOIL.
FURTHER ATTACK BY THE
Libyans.
Personal' valour of Rameses III.
Great victory of the Egyptians. The Shaaire.
Rameses III. digs a well on the road between
Egypt and Syria. The fleets of Rameses III.
Copper mines of Sinai.
Prosperity of Egypt
under Rameses III.
Increase of trade and
COMMERCE OF ALL KINDS. THE SEA TRADE. PAVILION of Rameses III. and unusual style of its
ORNAMENTATION. THE TEMPLE OF MEDINET HABU.
Tell el-YahudIyeh. The Temple of Khensu at
Thebes.
Gifts of Rameses III. to the gods of
Heliopolis, Abydos and Thebes.
Tomb and
mummy of Rameses III. The conspiracy in the
Trial of the conHctrim and its discovery.
Wife and family of Rameses III.
spirators.
History of the king by Herodotus. Reign of
Rameses IV. His mummy and tomb. Reigns of
Rameses V., Rameses VI., Rameses VII., Rameses
VIII., Rameses IX. Robbery of the royal tombs.
Government prosecution of the thieves. Rameses IX. GIVES THE PRIESTS OF AMEN POWER TO
REIGN OF RAMESES X.
LEVY TAXES. HlS TOMB.
Further prosecution of, thieves. Reign of Rameses XI. The princess of Bekhten. Reign of
Growth of the power of the
Rameses XII.
HIGH-PRIEST OF AMEN, HeR-HeRU, WHO ON THE
DEATH OF THE KING USURPS THE THRONE
144
12,000

'

LIST

OF ILLUSTRATIONS

PAGE
1.

Head

2.

Colonnade of the Temple of Seti

3.

Hall

4.

UsHABTI FIGURE OF SETI

5.
6.

of the

mummy

of columns at

of Seti 1

I.

The King

7.

at Abydos

11

MUSEUM

17

13

IN THE BRITISH

Head of the mummy of Rameses

Wooden statue of Rameses II
Battle of Rameses

I.

Karnak

II.

against the

in his chariot

22

II.

23

Kheta

.....
....

8.

Egyptian armed charioteers

9.

Egyptian army before Kadesh

27

29

.31

10.

The attack on Kadesh

11.

Egyptian soldiers in battle array.

12.

Egyptian troops on each side of the river

Orontes

13.

Capture of Kheta soldiers and mutilation

OF THE DEAD

39

14.

The King

41

15.

16.

Egyptian chariots

17. 18.

The Egyptian camp

in his chariot

company of Egyptian spearmen

...

35

37

....
....

43

of Rameses

57

47,

19.

The Asiatic princess Ra-neferu

20.

The Horus name and

Ka

33
.

II.

45

49
55

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

Xvi

PAGE
21.

The temple of Rameses

II.

at Abu Simbel

22 Obelisk with inscriptions of Rameses

FATHER SETI 1
.

Obelisk and Pylon of Rameses

FA 9 ADE

25.

Entrance to the tomb of Rameses

26.

II.

27.

Head from a statue of Rameses

The temple of Luxor

28.

The Temple-fortress of Rameses

III.

29.

The

30.

Mummy

II.

and

II.

59

his
61

at Luxor

23.
24.

OF the Ramesseum

II.

63

.65
.

71

.75
134

at Medinet

Habu

162

first court of the temple of

of King Rameses III

MedInet Habu

165
171

EGYPT
UNDER

RAMESES THE GREAT.

CHAPTER

I.

THE NINETEENTH DYNASTY.

l.

|y|

(o ra ^1] ]

1?-

Ra-men-

peh-peh, son of the Sun, Ra-messu

Ramessu
king of the

or

I.,

degree

Rameses

I.,

the

first

XIXth Dynasty, was

parently related

the

[I.].

of

to

ap-

Heru-em-heb,

but

cannot

relationship

at

present be defined, and its existence

doubted by some writers.

There

tainly no evidence that he

descent,

and nothing

is

throne.

There

are

is

cer-

was of royal

known

circumstances under which he

the

is

of

the

ascended

grounds

for

KA

u CH
suTEN^, the

Rameses

i.

several

VOL. v.

thinking that he held, like Heru-em-heb,

high

years

offices

before

he

under the government for

became

king,

and
B

that

THE REIGN OF RAMESES

when
age

succeeded his colleague he was past middle

lie

more than probable that he exercised

is

it

[B.C. 1400

I.

in

the south of Egypt an authority similar to that which

Heru-em-heb exercised

name

of

Amen

Although the

the north.

in

does not occur* in any of his names or

titles

he must have been a loyal servant of that god

or he

would never have been supported by his

His reign was very

short, certainly less

priests.

than ten years,

and, but for one thing, of which there

is

no mention

in the Egyptian inscriptions of the period,

might have

We

been termed uneventful.

have already mentioned

the prominent part which the

Kheta

tribes took in the

Egypt

in

confederation

of the

breaking of the power of

Syria in the reign of Amen-hetep IV., and

Egypt had been

since that time

to check their

do nothing

able to

The

advance in Northern Syria.

dis-

ruption caused by the heresy of the Disk worshippers

prevented the despatch of

any army against

them

during the reigns of the three predecessors of Rameses

I.,

and thus

it

happened that when this king ascended

the throne of Egypt he discovered that he was powerless

even to prevent their advance upon territory much

nearer to Egypt,

still

less to regain the old

Egyptian

made
the Kheta

possessions near the Euphrates, and he, therefore,

a treaty of peace with Sapalul, the prince of
tribes.

Reference

is

made

to this treaty in the treaty

which Sapaluls descendant made with Rameses

and

it

is

clear that in

Kheta were

the reign of Rameses

sufficiently powerful to

make

it

I.

II.,

the

worth the

TREATY WITH THE KHETA

HIS

B.C. 1500]

The

while of the Egyptians to be at peace with them.

only military expedition undertaken by Rameses

I.

was

against the Nubians, but whether this took place during

the

first

two years of his reign, when he was

monarch, or

when

his son Seti

As

mark

later,

cannot be said.

was

I.

sole

co-regent,

of his devotion to

Amen

he built the large pylon through which entrance

is

gained to the great Hypostyle Hall in the temple of

the god at Karnak, but of this very

on a wall near
a

number

he

it

little

I. made a tomb for

Tombs of the Kings at

Rameses

of gods.

himself in the Valley of the

Thebes, and was presumably buried in

doorway

of a large hall, with a

the further doorway admission

The

chamber.

now remains

represented in the act of adoring

is

hall

is

It consists

it.

at each

end

through

gained to a narrow

approached by two corridors,

is

which are not ornamented in any way, and the second

forms

steep

of

flight

steps

mummy

into the hall or

which

leads

directly

The walls

chamber.

of the

hall are decorated with large figures of the gods Maat,

Ptah, Nefer-Temu,
etc.,

Anubis,

Horus, Thoth, Khepera,

and with inscriptions and scenes from the Book

of the

Underworld.

granite and

is

The sarcophagus

about

five

feet

high

is

made

it is

of red

ornamented

with figures of the gods painted in yellow on a red

background, and
difficult to

up

Among

1
.

is

enter,

The tomb was very

now been filled
and mummies from the great

without a cover.

and

its

the coffins

entrance has

See Lefebure, Hypogees Rotjaux, Paris, 1890,

p.

157 ff.

MUMMY AND

COFFIN OF RAMESES

Der al-Bahari find were the fragments

coffin

[B,C. 1400

I.

wooden

of a

which had been painted yellow, and a cover which

seemed

The name

to belong to them.

of the original

owner had been erased and the prenomen of Rameses

inscribed in its place

this kings

prenomen

is

I.

found

on the fragments written both in hieroglyphics and in

On

the hieratic character.

a piece of the coffin are

the fragments of an inscription, which by the help of

other similar documents has been completed, and from

we

it

learn that on the 13th day of the fourth

the season Shat

^(|

of

16th year of the reign of

of the

Sa-Amen,

month

mummy of Rameses

the

I.

was

taken from his own tomb into that of queen An-Hapu,

/VWW\

(1

This removal was

peace.

in

by a priest of Amen-Ra called Ankh-f-en-Amen,

which was situated near the

of Amen-hetep,

effected
fir

/WWW

9.

tomb

AAAAAA

HA, the son

AWWA

who held

AAAAAA

of

Baki,

PU

and was,

several high ecclesiastical offices,

apparently,

superintendent

of

the

tombs.

royal

Near the fragments of the coffin was the unswathed

'

mummy

of a

man

and powerful

of large

short hair and a black skin

by M. Maspero

to

this

mummy

is

believed

have been that of Rameses

he thinks that

its

coffin

journeys which

it

had

al-Bahari, and that the

I.,

and

was broken by the various

to

mummies were removed

with

build,

undergo

when the

royal

to their hiding-place at Der.

mummy

itself

was stripped and


THE REIGN OF SETI

B.C. 1366]

plundered by the people

it

who were

I.

assisting in hiding

from the professional robbers of royal tombs

2.

Ojgea]
(

1
.

Es MAiT -

men, son of the Sun, Ptah-meri-en-Seti.

Seti

I.,

or

Seti-mer-en-Ptah

was the son of Rameses

queen

Tuaa
ia,

I.

I.,

he married
during the

reign of Heru-em-heb, and by her became

the father of Rameses II.

According to

Manetho he reigned between

fifty-five

years, but

there

is

fifty

and

no monu-

mental evidence in support of this statement.

The

inscriptions

prove that he

adopted a large number of Horus names,

among which may be mentioned

Mighty Bull, rising in Thebes, vivifying the two lands, Mighty Bull, image
of Menthu, Mighty Bull, son of Temu,
:

Ka-nekht-khI
EM-UaST-SEANKH'
taui, the Horus
name of Seti I.

Bull

of

Ra,

beloved

of

Maat,

Mighty

Bull,

M. Maspero relates the following in proof of the excellent

in which the body had been mummified.
The workmen
laid the naked mummy in the sun on the sand, and went away to
have lunch and their mid-day rest; when they returned they found
that one of the arms had moved from its position lengthwise down
the body, and was bent at right angles to the breast in a manner
which seemed to threaten them. Examination showed that the
arm had become contracted through the heat of the sun. Les
1

manner

Momies, pp. 552, 553.

REVOLT OF THE SHASU

upon Maat,

resting

He who

valour, destroyer

bows in

etc.

repeateth

all

[B.C. 1366

some of his

[his]

births,

titles

mighty

were,

one

of

Nine Bows, Might)7 one of

of the

subduer of the Menti, stablisher

lands,

of monuments, etc.

As

soon

Head

of the

and

tribes

successor
at

hostile

Seti

once
hosts.

mummy of

peoples

Desert and in

field

Raineses

as

Seti

who

Palestine
I.

I.

I.,

was

dead

king of Egypt,

lived
revolted,

the

nomad

b.c. 1370.

in

the

Eastern

and his son and

found himself obliged to take the

against

He

set

wretched Shasu, TYtVf

formidable

confederation

out from Egypt

,

against

of

the

and marched

B.C. 1366]

SUBMISSION OF SYRIA AND PALESTINE

to be to the south of

the whole country

a place which has been thought

Hebron

but Kanana refers to

and not to any one portion of

it.

The Shasu were defeated in the first battle, and large

He next attacked the
of them were slain.

numbers

<3

rebels of Khare,

who

king,

moon

is

with the same

described as the

Sun

of

result,

and the

Egypt and the

of all other lands, swept all before

him

like the

wheresoever he went he
slew men, and his soldiers

away much spoil.

The

chiefs of

Syria, submitted peacefully,

him up

following

Rethennu, or Northern

and sang praises

fortress of

of

city

Innuaamu,

conquered, and the

The

The

Amen-Ra.

to the king,

him he made
Kadesh and the

and of the presents which they brought

rich gifts to

carried

to

were also

whole country of the Amorites.

tribes of the Kheta, however, refused to follow

this example,

and therefore Seti

I.

marched into their

country; he slew their chiefs and passed through their

soldiers like a flame

before him. 1

From

of

fire,

and

all

that could

fled

every part of Syria he obtained

either gifts or tribute,

and he then retraced his steps

Egypt, leaving the country through which he had

to
1

For many of the inscriptions describing these events see

xi. p. 52 ff.
and for the scenes see

Guieyesse in Recueil, tom.

Lepsius, Denkmaler,

iii.

pll.

126-130.

TRIUMPHANT PROGRESS

SETIS

[B.C, 1366

Among

passed a place of desolation and misery.

tlie

brought back was wood for making a boat for

spoil

the god Amen-Ra, and trunks of straight and lofty

trees

which were to be made into the masts intended

to be

set

temples

up

in grooves- in front of the

main pylons of

the

wood and the

came from the

tree trunks

Lebanon mountains, famous then,

lofty cedars

When

and other

Seti

I.

as later, for their

trees.

arrived

the

at

of

frontiers

Egypt

he was met by the priests and nobles of the country,

who

received

him with shouts

of joy, and with

the spoil which he had brought back he

make
Thebes.
The

the river to

a triumphant progress

to

principal

Palestine

in

and

events

were

Syria

of

all

out on

set

up the Nile

the campaign

on

sculptured

the

north and south walls of the great Hypostyle Hall

at

Karnak, and near each was added a

in hieroglyphics for every

man

to see.

full

very proud of his achievements and caused

countries,

and

cities,

and

villages

conquered to be inscribed upon the

monuments which he

set

Thus on the north wall

Amen

is

up

in

description

The king was

lists

of the

he

had

buildings

and

which

Egypt and Nubia.

of the great hall at Thebes

depicted holding ropes to which are tied by

their necks series of representatives of conquered places,

each with his name enclosed in a turreted cartouche;

the base of a sphinx in the temple of Seti
also contains a long list of

and

at

I.

at

Kurna

names of conquered places

Redesiyeh or Radassiyeh, about forty miles to

THE CONQUESTS OF

B.C. 1366]

SETI

I.

the east of Edfu, and at Sesebi in the Third Cataract

portions of lists and scenes of conquest have also been

found.

Seti

I.

master of the

nomads

seems to have claimed that he was

Nubians,

Libyans,

people

Punt,

of

of the Eastern Desert, Palestine, Syria, Cyprus,

and of Western Asia generally as

far

eastwards as

Neherna, but his court scribes must have exaggerated

the size of his kingdom, for

time,

it

way

the Kheta were not in any

is

quite

certain that

subject to

him

at this

and that their territory was under their own

That their power was very great

fact that not very

by the

at this period is

many

rule.

proved

years later Rameses

II.

was

to

enter into an agreement which

obliged, even after his fierce battle with them,

restore

to

Egypt any

certainly did

not

which had

of the possessions

been hers in the reign of Thothmes III.

As soon

as his wars were over Seti I. devoted him-

self to the building of

new temples and the

restoration

of old ones, and the evidences of his great activity in

such works are found

throughout Egypt from the

north of the Delta to the Third Cataract, and in the

Sinaitic

peninsula

Hammamat

quarries at

buildings
for

and

in

The

were worked for stone for his

the mines at Sarbut al-Khadim were worked

copper and malachite;

either

Wadi Hammamat.

and

it

appears that he

worked regularly or carried on experimental

works in

all

Nubia.

The temple

the great mines of the Eastern Desert in

of Redesiyeh,

or

Radassiyeh,

mentioned above, stands on the old desert road which

MINING OPERATIONS OF SETI

10

ran from Edfu to

emerald mines of Mount Zabara,

tlie

Bed

near Berenice on the

that Seti

worked

I.

[B.C. 1366

I.

only built

it

for his benefit.

and

Sea,

it is

pretty certain

because the mines were being

As there was a water

or well, close by, the traveller

would not only be able

who had

obtain

to

station,

halted there

refreshment, but

would also become acquainted with the scenes of the

prowess of Seti

I.,

which were sculptured inside the

temple in the ninth year of his reign.

Seti I. either

bored, or re-bored a well here, and a small building

seems to mark

he caused a

to

probable that

it is

water stations to be established

from the Nile to Berenice

seem

day

its site to this

series of

have made plans

1
.

of

The

local

mining agents

the districts wherein gold

or mines of precious stones were situated, and to have

had them drawn and painted upon papyrus either

of new-comers or

the benefit

to

about the position of the mines to high

A plan

Egypt.

and on

it

we

for

supply information

of this kind was published

officials

in

by Lepsius

see indicated the footpaths running

2
,

among

the mountains, the position of the government building,

which in

this case

places where the

when viewed
1

in

was erected by

workmen

Seti

I.,

and the

are boring into the hills

comparison with

modern maps

it

The whole route has been carefully described by Golenischeff

{Recueil, tom. xiii. p. 75),

name

who has given us

of the goddess Aasith,

information.

Auswahl,

pi. xxii.

the true reading of the

and other curious

B.C. 1366]

BUILDING OPERATIONS OF SETI

appears to be a crude piece of work, but

remembered, as Wiedemann

map in the world.

Among the buildings

lias

II

I.

it

said, that

must be
it is

the

oldest

of Seti

I.

must be

mentioned those which he carried out

Thebes.

At Abydos he

built the

at

specially

Abydos and

famous temple called

Colonnade of the Temple of Seti I. at Abydos.

Prom a photograph by A. Beato, Lnxor.

own prenomen Men-Maat-Ra, but more

commonly known from its description by Strabo as the
Memnonium.
Abydos was the centre of Osiris
worship in Upper Egypt, for there was supposed to be
after

his

the tomb of the head of the god, and Egyptians loved

to

be buried there,

first,

that their bodies might be

near the head of Osiris, and secondly, because there

THE KING

12

was a widespread
the

city, in

LIST OF SETI

[B.C. 1366

I.

belief in the country that close to

the mountains, was the Gap,

>

opening through which disembodied souls made

or,

way

their
fine

into Paradise.

not finished, and his

The

temple was built of

Setis

white limestone, but when the king died

Rameses

son

walls and pillars

II.

was

it

completed

it.

are ornamented with religious

scenes and figures of the gods, and the sculptures and

reliefs

among the most

Egypt for design,

found in

the reliefs are unequalled under the

finish,

Empire.

shrines

proportion, excellence of

work, and

New

beautiful of those to be

are

At the end of the temple

or chapels, dedicated

Amen, Harmachis,
behind these

is

Horus,

to

and

Ptah,

Seti

List which Seti

I.

a corridor of the

One

the famous King-

buildiDg at the side of the main

Here we have a

being that of Seti

making

is

had inscribed upon the main wall of

list

of the

kings, the first being that of

last

Osiris,

Isis,

respectively

I.

the chief shrine of the god Osiris.

remarkable feature of the temple

edifice.

are seven

I..;

to

Mena

at one

an offering of incense,

and they pray that

names

of seventy-six

or Menes,

and the

end stand Seti

and his son Rameses

I.,

II.,

each of the kings named the

triune god Ptah-Seker-Asar will give 1000 cakes, 1000

vessels of ale,

The

royal

whose
seasons,

1000

names in

spiritual

and the

cattle,

1000 feathered fowl,

etc.

this list represent the kings for

welfare

Seti

list itself is

the Tablet of Abydos, as

it

I.

prayed

at

certain

of great importance, for

is

generally called, has

B.C. 1366]

SETIS

WORKS AT THEBES

helped us to reconstruct the

13

chronological

some of the kings of Egypt.

and even whole dynasties, but

It omits

of

order

many names,

its historical

value

is

very great.

Hall of Columns at Karnak.

From a photograph by A. Beato, Luxor.

At Karnak

S,eti I.

carried out

many important new

works and restorations, but the greatest of them

all

was done in connexion with the Hypostyle Hall, or

Hall of Columns.

This marvellous building measured

THE HALL OF COLUMNS AT THEBES

14

about 340 feet by 168

feet,

and contained 134 columns

one of these was set up by Raineses

and 54 by Rameses

[B.C. 1366

79 by Seti

I.,

Twelve columns are 68

II.

I.,

feet

high and 35 feet in circumference, and 122 are about

43

high and 27

feet

Seti

this

all

restored

I.

part, the temples

important

of

many

in circumference.
or

rebuilt, in

Besides

whole or in

of his ancestors in all the

of Egypt. 1

cities

bank of the

feet

At Kurna, on the west

Nile, opposite Thebes,

he completed and

adopted as his own the funeral chapel which had been

begun by Rameses

I.,

and formally dedicated

worship of himself and

his

This

father.

temple was built in connexion with

tomb

in the Valley of the Kings,

to the

it

funeral

the wonderful

and the king appears

have intended that services should be held in

to

it

instead of in the tomb, which was, comparatively, a

long
long,

way from the

The tomb

is

nearly 350 feet

and consists of a large number of halls and

corridors,

and

side chapels, all of

of the solid rock

100

river.

feet

which are hewn out

the floor of the lowest room

below the level of the valley.

covered by Belzoni in 1817, and

Belzonis Tomb, or No. 17.

is

It

is

commonly

It is the

about

was

dis-

called

most beautiful

of all the royal tombs, and strikes the beholder with

wonder

at

the vast amount of labour and the skill

displayed in making

it.

The paintings on the

walls, etc.,

suggest that the decoration, and probably every part

1

p.

Most

421

ff.

of these are

mentioned by Wiedemann, Aeg. Geschichte,

ALABASTER SARCOPHAGUS OF SETI

B.G. 1366]

of

was carried out by the sculptors and

it,

artists

The

built Setis temple to Osiris at Abydos.

I.

15

who

inscrip-

tions on the entrance staircase -corridor are selections

Ra and

from the Book of the Praisings of

Book

which

of [knowing] that

is in

the

the Underworld.

According to this last work the world beyond the grave

was divided into

and the texts of

sections,

book enabled the deceased

make

to

this curious

way

his

safely

In one of the

through them, even as did the Sun.

chambers entered from the main hall with eight

pillars

how mankind

once on

a time rebelled against the Sun-god Ra, and

made a

is

a remarkable text describing

mock
feeble

of
;

him because the god had become

old

and

they were, however, severely punished, for they

were slaughtered by the goddess Sekhet, who waded

many other calamities came

The goddess Hathor at this time compassed

about in their blood, and

upon them.

the destruction of mankind.

The

large

and beautiful

phagus of the king

Museum
it

in

Lincolns

institution

with a long series

Book

of

white

alabaster

sarco-

preserved in Sir John Soanes

Inn

was taken by Belzoni;

sold to this

the

is

of

for

Fields,
it

is

2000.

extracts

[knowing] what

London,

It

where

have been

said to
is

inscribed

and vignettes from

is

in

the

Under-

world, and the hieroglyphics were inlaid with

blue

1
For the texts see Bonomi, Sarcophagus of Oimeneptah I.,
London, 1864 and for translations see Records of the Past vol. x.
pp. 85-134; vol. xii. p. Iff.
;

MUMMY OF

COFFIN AND

i6

which was intended

paste,

The

coffin of Seti I.

Der

al-Bahari.

The

eyes inlaid with

to

SETI

represent

lapis-lazuli.

was found with his

coffin is

black

and

[B.C. 1366

I.

mummy

at

painted white, and has

white

Three

enamel.

hieratic inscriptions on it tell us that in the 6th year of

the high priesthood of Her-Heru the

mummy

of Seti

I.

was re-bandaged and re-interred by Hen-Amen-pena,

that in the 16th year of the

/W\AA/\

AA/WV\

reign

AAAAAA

Sa-Amen.

of

it

CTJ.
.

was removed

to

the tomb

of

An-Hapu; and that in the 10th year of

Pai-netchem, who reigned about a century later, the
mummy was again moved and taken to the everThe mummy of Seti I.
lasting abode of Amen-hetep.
was unrolled on June 9, 1886, when most of its swaththe queen

ings were found to

be those originally used, but a

few were newer and dated from the XXIst Dynasty.

The nose

is

well-shaped and aquiline, the mouth

long, the lips are thin, the ears are small

and are pierced

is

and round,

for earrings, the eye-brows

are

now

blackened by bitumen, but were originally white, the

head and chin are shaved, the only two teeth

are well preserved, even

thought

that

Seti

died

as, is

visible

the whole body.

when he was about

It is

sixty

years of age, and, in view of his knotted fingers, that

he suffered from
there

a striking

is

of Seti

arthritis.

I.

they are

M. Maspero thinks

and those of his son Rameses

finer

and

that

resemblance between the features

more

intelligent

II.,

only that

in

fact

that

PHYSICAL FEATURES OF SETI

B.C. 1366]

the

father

the son

an

is

type

idealized
1

17

I.

of

Every-

thing

that

we

know

about

the

tomb and funeral

and

furniture

mummy

of Seti

proves

that

I.

the

burial of the king

must

have

been

attended with the

greatest

pomp and
and

ceremony,

interesting

is

note that the

it

to

reli-

gious inscriptions

on

the

walls

of

the tomb are ex-

not from
the Chapters of

tracts,

Coming Forth by
Day,

or

dhe

Book

of

the

Dead,

but

from

works of
tirely

an endifferent
Ushabti figure of king Seti

character.
1

Les Momies, p. 554 ff.

VOL. V.

British

I.

Museum, No.

Eecueil, tom. viii. p. 180.

22,818.

l8 JOINT REIGN OF SETI

I.

AND RAMESES

In the inscriptions of Raineses

temple built by Seti

at a very early age,

lord of the

found on the

II.

womb

in the rale of the

and that he was made the

kingdom when he was a

as yet he was in the

[B.C. 1366

Abydos, we are told that bis

at

him with himself

father associated

kingdom

I.

II.

When

hoy.

little

of his mother the nobles of

the land saluted

him and paid homage

when he was

in the habit of sitting on his fathers

still

had

knee the king gave the order and

All this, however,

crowned.

part of Raineses

hyperbole

in

when he was

still

Seti.

Seti

I.

we know from the

it

as oriental

he cannot have been crowned

little

boy being brought up in the

for

he was not the eldest son of

had a son older than Rameses

reliefs

for this princes figure

What happened

child

case,

womens apartments,

That

the

and

exaggeration on the

is

we may regard

II., or

any

to him,

which depict his battle

and

titles

Setis great

being at that time a mature man, and

that he was slain in battle.

scenes,

are found in them.

we have no means

to this prince

knowing, hut he took part in

II.

it

of

Syrian war,
is

possible

It is a curious fact that in

every case where his figure and

titles

occur his

name

has been cut out, and we are forced to come to the

same conclusion

as

Wiedemann

1
,

of an elder brother must have

Rameses
the
1

II.,

and

monuments

that

i.e.,

that the existence

been

disagreeable to

he who used with predilection

of his ancestors as material for his

Proc. Soc. Bibl. Arch., vol. xii., 1890, p. 260

Geschichte, p. 419, 420.

and see Aegyptische

JOINT REIGN OF SETI

B.C. 1366]

own, would try by

I.

possible

all

AND RAMESES
means

ig

II.

to destroy his

memory; the obliteration of the princes

name will have been made at his instigation.
The question which has now to be considered is, Was

brothers

Eameses

II.

When we

ever co-regent with Seti I.?

consider that

the reign

of

was very

Seti I.

short,

probably not more than twelve or fifteen years

1
,

and

that extremely few texts exist which can be construed

co-regency, and

into referring to the

dated in

Rameses
Seti

I.

II.

Rameses

II.,

are

allowed to be inscribed on the temple of

Abydos

at

that none

morally certain that the words which

it, it is

are untrue.

Moreover, we know that

had he been co-regent with his father

at

the extremely early age which he indicates, would have

been

incapable

of

Kheta, which he

conducting the war against the

tells

us he waged in the

to be the father of the

year of

grown-up sons who accompanied

him on that memorable

occasion.

The

some length 2 his reasons

stated at

Rameses

fifth

and that he would not have been old enough

his reign,

II.

late Dr.

Brugsch

for believing that

was selected co-regent by his father

very early age, and thought that

reasons for doing

so.

Seti

I.

Seti

I.

at a

had good

married a lady called

Tuaa, who was probably related or connected with the

royal house of the

Amen-hetep kings, and who had,

therefore, in the eyes of the Egyptians, a claim to the

.

throne

Seti himself
1

was not of royal descent, and

Maspero, Hist. Anc., tom. ii. p. 387, note

Egypt under the Pharaohs, vol. ii. p. 22.

5.

20 JOINT REIGN OF SETI

I.

AND RAMESES

II.

[B.C, 1366

could only assert a right to the throne through his

Dr. Brugsch argued that the priests of

wife.

Amen

and the Egyptians hated Tuaa because her grandfathers blood flowed in her veins (he assumes that

she was the granddaughter of Khu-en-Aten, of which

there

no proof)

is

after the

god

that Seti,

who was himself named

Sutekh, was related to a stock

Set, or

that worshipped foreign gods, at the head of which was

the Canaanitish Baal-Sutekh, and that Seti

avoid

himself obliged to

I. felt

an open breach, and to

soothe the stubborn caste of the priests of Amen, even

though they hated Raineses ancestry, by electing the

In answer to this

child as co-regent.

position,

Seti I.

would have no reason

that the views about the

no foundation

it

must be stated

Amen, having regained

that the priests of

and

fear

to

name

their old

any act of

of the king

have

had acquired a

that, since Seti I.

claim to the throne through his wife, which was held

to he a valid claim

by the Egyptians, he could not he

regarded as an usurper, as Rameses

been considered.

I.

might well have

Dr. Brugsch concludes, While he

[Seti I.] actually ruled the land as king, Rameses, his

son, as legitimate sovereign, gave authority to

acts of his father.

Rameses

II.

It

is,

all

the

however, certain that

counted the years of his reign from the

year in which his father died, that the years of his

life

when he ascended the throne were many more in

number than the years of his fathers reign, that he
1

Egypt under the Pharaohs

vol.

ii.

p. 25.

REIGN OF RAMESES

B.C. 1333]

21

II.

was a man when he ascended the throne, and that in

Kheta, which took place in the

his battle with the

had sons with him who were

fifth year of his reign, he

The

young men.
the

early

history

pompous and
great battle

inscriptions at

inflated

of that

perhaps, strictly

Rameses

of

Abydos 1 which record

II.

style as the

have

same

the

description of the

king which was

composed,

or

speaking, copied, by the court scribe

and poet-laureate Pentaur, or Pentaurt, and they may

be regarded as narratives written rather to please and
flatter

3
-

the king than to serve any historical purpose.

M fcAiil] ^ Clfcili]

ra-usek-

Maat-setep-en-Ra, son of the Sun, Ra-messu-meri-

Amen.

Ra-Messu
or PayjrdKTj^j

II.,

or

Rameses II., 'Pd/jL^rjs,

was the son of Seti

the queen Tuaa,

who seems

connected with the royal

to

and

have been

house of the

Amen-hetep kings; the year of

when he ascended the throne

Ka-NE KHT-MEKIMaat,
the Horus name
of Rameses II.

I.

is

his age

unknown,

but, as he

was conducting his great war

against the

Kheta

five years later,

accom-

panied by grown-up sons, he certainly

cannot have been

less

than twenty-five

They were published with interlinear text and translation by

M. Maspero in Essai sur V inscription dedicatoire du temple d Abydos,
1

Paris, 1867.

NAMES AND TITLES OF RAMESES

22

of

as his

Horus name

and

very

in

number

him

rectangular

or ka,

Uatchet,
countries,

Horus

of

were regarded

which the Horus,

mummy of Rameses II.

Full face.

written.

Egypt,

of gold,

we

accordingly, being placed

Lord of the shrines

master

which

epithets

in the inscriptions

names were usually

titles,

of

enclosures within

of the

adopted

Mighty Bull, beloved of Maat,

Horus names and treated

Head

his

large

find applied to

as

He

age when he was crowned.

years

[B.C. 1333

II.

of

In addition to

Nekhebet and

conqueror

mighty one of

of

foreign

years, great

of strength, he is called Exalter of Thebes, he who

rises in Thebes, vivifier of the two lands son of Set,

NAMES AND TITLES OF RAMESES

B.C. 1333]

son of Amen, son

son

Temn, son

of

of Khepera, son

of

Amen, mighty

of

23

II.

Ptah-Tanen,
of two-fold

strength, firm of heart, power of two-fold strength,

valiant

loved

smiter

warrior,

of

lord

Asiatics,

the
be-

two

the

of

of

festivals,

lands,

king

of kings, bnll of princes, mighty

one of valonr like his father Set

in Nubti,

upholder of

Maat, possessor of the two lands,

etc

1
.

Although, as we have already

seen,

improbable

is

it

Rameses

II.

Egypt when he was

child

living

quarters
right

in

still

a little

womens

the

in

the

palace,

thinking

in

that

was crowned king of

that

we

are

he was

trained with the soldiers and ac-

customed

command

military

to

when he was

ten or twelve years

Besides his military ap-

of age.

pointments he held the

of

offices

counsellor and overseer of certain

i

lands,

and

ci

spared
no pains
1
r
to qualify him to become a wise
.

and able prince.

1

The

wooden
Rameses

(ed.

Brit. Mus.,

In the reign of Seti

I.

No.

882.

Rameses

and of many other titles will be found

Brugsch and Bouriant), p. 65 ff.

texts of these

Le Lirre des Rois

statue of
from the

II.

kings tomb.

feeti I.

in

WARS

24

IN NUBIA, LIBYA,

AND SYRIA

[B.C. 1333

made npon

took part in certain raids which were

the Libyans and other tribes living on the west

Nubians in various parts of

at several fights with the

He

their country.

the

first

and he was present

of Egypt,

north-west frontiers

continued the wars in Nubia during

two or three years of his reign, and they

were waged with such fierceness that

seems as

it

must have

some of the

tribes of that country

to shake

the yoke of Egypt, and to

off

the payment of tribute to the

The

and

new

if

tried

from

cease

king.

principal memorial of his wars in Nubia, Libya,

and Syria

is

the

little

rock-hewn temple at Bet al-Walli

near Kalabsheh, where, on the two sides of the vestibule,

are scenes depicting the principal events of these wars,

and the receipt of

the capture of prisoners,

tribute.

In the Libyan war the king was accompanied by his

son

Amen -her- khepesh-f,

(1

who

is

repre-

sented as bringing prisoners before his father; Bameses

was

also

attacked

The

accompanied by his favourite dog, which

the foe

at

the

same time as his master.

Syrians, as usual, took refuge in their fortresses,

but they availed them nought, for their entrances were

forced by the Egyptian soldiers and, if

we may

trust

the picture on the wall, the Syrians were put to the

sword by the king whilst they were in the very act

of tendering submission and pleading for mercy.

scenes which illustrate the

interesting,

for

we

Nubian campaigns

see the king

are

The
more

seated in state and

B.C. 1333]

WARS

receiving the

These

AND SYRIA

IN NUBIA, LIBYA,

25

brought to him by the natives.

gifts

panther

gifts consisted of gold rings, leopard or

skins, prisoners, apes, panthers, giraffes, oxen, gazelles,

ostriches,

ebony, bows, feathers, fans, chairs of state,

a lion, an antelope,

tasks of elephants,
is

they must,

clear that

been brought from

On

Fourth Cataract.

was

accompanied

who

for

the

most

and

it

have

part,

country to the south of the

Nubian campaign Rameses

his

by his

<>>
jj

the

etc.,

sons

Amen - her -un ami -f,

and Kha-em-Uast,

are seen in their chariots charging the Nubians,

From

and performing mighty deeds of valour.

accounts given of the battles in Nubia

it

the

does not

appear that Rameses did anything more than make

certain tribes

made

his

decessors

pay tribute

way

he does not seem to have

as far to the

south as some of his pre-

had done, and he certainly added no new

territory to the

Egyptian possessions in Nubia.

In the fourth year of his reign Rameses was engaged

by the

in a military expedition in Syria, a fact proved

memorial

stele

which he

set

up on the rocks overhangiDg

the left or south bank of the

River, near

its

mouth.

Nahr

ing into the presence of the god

prisoner,

who has

al-Kalb, or

Here the king

is

Dog

seen thrust-

Menthu

Syrian

his hands tied behind him, and

whom

he holds by a feather placed on the top of his head.

the

Dog River

there are three stelae of Rameses

and one of Esarhaddon, king of Assyria, who

At
II.,

set his

WAR WITH THE KHETA

26

up on

return from the conquest of Egypt, to com-

liis

memorate

capture of

tlie

are obliterated

third stele

all

in the year

three stelae of

Rameses

and the dates of two of the three

the

perhaps dated in the fourth year of the

is

kings reign, for

saw

Memphis by him

The inscriptions on

b.c. 670.

[B.C. 1333

it

is

probable that

when Dr. Lepsius

the four strokes, which stand for the numeral

it

4, were distinctly legible after the word for year

j

jo

it

but when the writer saw the stele in October, 1890,

was impossible

strokes

We

to say

what the exact number of the

had been.

have already seen that in the XVIIIth Dynasty

the Kheta formed an enemy of Egypt

means

who was by no

and that though the Egyptian

to be despised,

kings of the latter part of the dynasty claimed to have

subdued them and reduced them

it is

to the state of vassals,

by no means certain that they

really did so.

Since

the reign of Thothmes III. they had been gradually

way

forcing their

Rameses

into

Syria,

and by the

time that

had ascended the throne the authority

IT.

the prince of the Kheta reached as far as

As a

result

of the

arrangements

made between the Kheta

Rameses I., and Seti I., the
in Syria

the

which had been

princes and

Saparuru,

in
*?

the time

Heru-em-heb,

limit of Egypts possessions

was marked by the Dog River.

Kheta

of

Kadesli.

of

The prince of

Heru-em-heb was called

'j

have made a treaty with Egypt

and

he seems to

his son

and successor

B.C. 1333]

WAR WITH THE KHETA

Battle of

Rameses

II.

27

against the Kheta.

in his chariot charging into the enemy on one side of the river
Orontes whilst his charioteers attack them on the other. The pet lion of
Rameses is seen in his chariot, and is about to spring on the foe.

Rameses

II.

THE KHETA AND THEIR ALLIES

28

Marusaru,
-fl

made

also

[B.C, 1333

treaty with Egypt, and there was peace between the

two countries until his son began to rule over the

Mauthenre,

called

reason thought

and

This young man, who was

of the Kheta.

peoples

was

it

(Q /WWVA

ii'

III

up a war against Egypt,

to stir

fit

meet and defeat the Kheta in this war

to

that Rameses was obliged to prepare.

the Kheta had gathered together a
allies,

some

for

The prince

number

of

of powerful

such as the kings of Aleppo, and Karkemish, and

Aradus, and Kadesh, and hosts of soldiers belonging to

the tribes

the west

numbers

who had

their

homes

in the country further to

on the other hand, Rameses

of mercenaries,

tana, the Shirdani of the

allies of the

\\

employed large

Kheta prince included people from Qitcliaua

[tan],

II.

among whom were the SharTell el-Amarna Tablets. The

Mushanth,

from

&

AAAAAA
A/V'AAA

Ruka,

from

/WWVA

(vX/j
I

from Tartenui,

^
Pitasa,

r^-/i
;

from Maunna,

&

\\"

from Masa,
rs^i

from Qarqisha,

from

etc.

\\

One
against

of the best accounts of the battle of

the

Kheta

ever

drawn

up

is

Rameses

found on a

Battle of

The horses in the chariot

of

Rameses II. against the Kheta.

Rameses II. trampling on the foe, and the general
attack hy his troops.

30 EGYPTIAN ACCOUNT OF
stele

in

tlie

rock-hewn

THE KHETA WAR

[B.C, 1333

Abu Simbel

temple at

in

Nubia, and as

it is

comparatively brief and to the point

a rendering of

it is

here given:

the third

month

of the season

On

the ninth day of

Shemut

(i.e.,

the

month

Epiphi), under the reign of his majesty of Horns, the

Mighty Bull, beloved

of Maat, the king of the

South

and North, Ba-user-Maat-setep-en-Ba, the sun of the

Sun, Bamessu, beloved of Amen, the giver of

behold,

ever,

Tchah,

majesty

life for

was in the country

during his second expedition.

strict

his

of

very

guard was being kept in the camp of his

majesty on the country to the south of the city of

Kadesh,

His majesty rose up

god

like the

Ba, and he arrayed himself in the glorious apparel

of his father

Menthu

the lord continued to

move

forward, and his majesty arrived at the south of the

town of

Shabtun,

TYTqT

jj

members of the Shasu came and

brethren
the

who

Then two

said to him,

Our

are chiefs of the tribes that are with

wretched Kheta have made us come to your

majesty to inform you that we are prepared to become

we

servants of your majesty, and that

way

in league

are not in

any

Now

the

with the wretched Kheta.

wretched Kheta have pitched

their

country of Khirebu,

camp
(i.e.

\\

in

the

Aleppo),

AAAAAA

to the north of

Tunep,

being afraid that

B.C. 1333]

EGYPTIAN ACCOUNT OF THE KHETA WAR 31

Battle of Raineses II. against the Kheta.

The attack on the

fortified city of

Kadesh on the Orontes.

ACCOUNT OF THE KHETA WAR

32 EGYPTIAN

your majesty

did the

go out to attack them.

will

foul intent, for the wretched

to

them

to arrange his troops in battle array,

;

of

soldiers, and their horsemen,

in large numbers,

together, with the

neighbouring

the

all

and

meanwhile the wretched

Kheta had gathered themselves

chiefs

Kheta had made

go and spy out where his majesty was before

was able

to prepare for his attack

In this wise

two Shasu speak, but they spake these words

with
he

[B.C. 1333

whom

and

lands,

their

they had collected

and the whole force was drawn up,

and lying in ambush behind the wretched

city

of

and his majesty had no information whatever

Kadesh,

concerning their arrangements.

Then

city of

When

his majesty drew on to the north-west of the

Kadesh, where his troops pitched their camp.

his majesty

had seated himself upon

his throne

of gold, certain of his scouts came in bringing with

them before him two

When

Kheta.

these

spies belonging to the wretched

had been brought before

majesty, the king said to them,

they

your

replied,

We

who has made

Where

is

And

Aleppo).

Kheta

And

chief

is

is

are ye

come and

Kheta chief?

in the country of

they

find out

where

said,

Behold,

I have heard

Khirebu
the

all

(i.e.,

wretched

with the innumerable hosts of people

which he has gathered together unto him, that

say,

his

And

his majesty said unto them,

the wretched

it said that he

Who

belong to the wretched Kheta chief

his servants to

majesty is/

the nations belonging to

the

is to

country

of

B.C. 1333]

THE ATTACK ON KADESH

Battle of

The attack on the

VOL. V.

Rameses

II.

33

against the Kheta.

fortified city of

Kadesh on the Orontes.

THE ATTACK ON KADESH

34

Kheta, and to the country of Nehiren,

(i.e.,

Western Babylonia), and

c=
\

^'

men

(i.e.,

[B.C. 1333

raw

rv^i
AAAAAA

to the country of Qeti,

Phoenicia), and he has soldiers and

with horses that are for number even as the

sands on the sea-shore, and behold, they stand all

ready

to

Kadesh.

do

behind the wretched

battle

Then

his majesty called his officers into

his presence in-order that he

cerning all the things

Kheta had

them]

of

city

said unto

Find out how

might inform them con-

which the two spies of the

him
it

in charge of the soldiers

[And he said

there.

that those

is

to

who have been

and of outpost duty in the

region where his majesty hath been, have reported

as certain that the wretched

Kheta

country of Khirebu, whither

he heard of him.

It

majesty information

that

which I have

chief

he had

was their duty

which
just

was

fled as

in the

soon as

to report to his

is correct.
Ye see now
made known unto you,

through the information received from the two spies

of the country of the Kheta,

that

and men and horses which

sand

how

that the chief of

country hath arrived with followers innumerable,

which

is

behind the wretched

officers

who

are for

number even

on the sea shore, and that he

city

of Kadesh, and

as the

is
)^et

now
the

are over the soldiers and outpost duty in

the regions where I am

have had no knowledge

thereof!

When

these

words had been

said

the

generals

B.C. 1333]

BATTLE AGAINST THE KHETA

Battle of

Rameses

II.

against the Kheta.

35

36

RAMESES CHARGING INTO THE ENEMY

who had been

called

admitted that

into

his

majestys

of

the

gravest

fault

been committed by those

district,

[B.C. 1333

who were

presence

had

kind

in charge of the

they had not informed

inasmuch as

majesty where the wretched chief of the

his

Kheta had

And when the generals had

spoken his majesty gave the command to hurry on
the march of the soldiers who were to the south of

taken

up

his position.

the city of Shabtun, and to bring

them

where he was as soon as possible.

moment

his

Now

that

at

whilst his majesty was sitting in council with

the wretched chief of the Kheta came

officers,

with his soldiers, and his horsemen,

to the place

and his

allies

who were gathered together unto him from every

nation, and they crossed over the ditch which was at

the south of

Kadesh, and they made their way into

the midst of the soldiers of his majesty as they were on

the march,

and they knew

it

Then the

not.

soldiers

and horsemen of his majesty quailed before them, and

ran to the place where his
warriors of the wretched

bodyguard of his majesty.

saw

them he raged

at

was, and the

majesty

Kheta prince hemmed

them

As soon

in the

as his majesty

like his father

Menthu,

the lord of Thebes, and having girded on his panoply

of war

lie

seized his lance, and being like unto the

h ur

god Bar,
chariot and charged the

enemy

dashed into the midst of the

rapidly.

mounted

his

His majesty

mass of the enemy, and

THE ATTACK ON KADESH

B.C. 1333]

The

Battle of Raineses II. against the Kheta.

37

VICTORY OF RAMESES

3
like tlie

most mighty god Sutekh,

them down and

slew

bodies headlong into

(1

by myself,

for

my

soldiers

forsaken me, and not one of

bold to come to

to Ra, and

have

my

my

The

and

dead

their

the

of

Orontes,

was/ said the king,

my

horsemen had

them had been

my

he kewed

>

sufficiently

my love
Temu. What I

I dedicate

father

just described that I myself performed in very

truth in the presence of

men.

assistance.

praise to

and cast

tliem,

the waters

rr~r Arenuth.

Qn

[B.C. 1333

II.

my

soldiers

and

my

horse-

information

to

be

derived from

the

above

may, however, be supplemented by some important

facts

which are

usually

to be gleaned

attributed

composed some

to

little

the

from the heroic poem

Pen-ta-urt,

scribe

time after the

which has been translated above.

official

and

account

According to this

document, 3 the Kheta hosts covered the mountains and

filled

the valleys like locusts, and every inhabitant of

the country was dragged by the prince of Kheta to

the fight.

The Egyptian host was divided into four

i.e., the army of Amen, which marched

great armies,

with the king, the army of Ra, which occupied the

good edition

pll.

Egyptian text and a French translation

found in Becueil, tom. viii. p. 126 ff.

of the

of the inscription will be

For the hieratic text see Select Papyri, ed. Birch, vol. i.
xxiv.-xxxiv.
and see de Rouge, Le Poeme de Pen-ta-our,

Paris, 1856.

MUTILATION OF THE DEAD

B.C. 1333]

39

ditch on the west of

the town of Shabtun,

army of Ptah,

the

which

occupied

middle position, and

the

army

of Sutekh,

which marched along

the

roads

the

of

The enemys

country.

host

attacked

army

of

the

which

Ra,

the

retreated before

pick

the

attack

of

of the

Kheta army,

supported as

by

was

it

each

chariots,

containing three warriors

it

was

then

that the king charged

the

into

enemy

at

headlong speed, but

he found soon

wards

after-

that he

was

surrounded by two

thousand

five

hun-

dred pairs of horses,

and that his retreat

was

barred

bravest

of

by the
all

the

Capture of Kheta soldiers and mutilation

of the dead.

THE APPEAL OF RAMESES TO AMEN

40

[B.C. 1333

Kheta troops. In these straits Eameses cried out to

Amen, and asked the god where he was, and why he did
not come to his help, and he spake to the god, saying,

Have

I for nought dedicated to thee temples, and

filled

them with

substance, and

unto

and given thee of

prisoners,

made the whole country

to

all

my

pay tribute

and ten thousand oxen, besides sweet-

thee,

smelling woods of every kind? I never stayed my

hand from doing that which thou wishedst. I have
built for thee pylons

have raised

up

and other

to thee pillars

edifices in stones, I

which

will last for ever,

and I have brought obelisks for thee from

Abu

I brought stone for thee, and I

Elephantine).

(i.e.,

made

ships to sail on the sea

and bring back the products

of foreign lands

Behold,

midst of multitudes of

men who have banded themam alone, and no

0 Amen,

am

in the

selves together against me, and I

one is with me, for all

my

soldiers

and charioteers

have forsaken me; I

cried out unto them, but none

hearkened unto me.

But

me than

to

thou,

0 Amen,

millions of warriors,

art

more

and hundreds of

thousands of horses, and tens of thousands of brothers

and

sons,

even

if

they were here

acts of hosts of

men

better than them

all.

his

hand

to the king,

thy father Ba.

together

are as nothing, and

The god Amen

and

My

all

said, I

power

is

the

Amen

is

stretched out

am with

thee, I

with thee, aud I

am
am

better than hundreds of thousands [of men] united.

Then the king charged, and the

five

thousand horses

B.C. 1333]

RAMESES

IN HIS

CHARIOT

Battle of Raineses II. against the Kheta.-

41

42 CHARIOTEER

AND HORSES OF RAMESES

[B.C. 1333

II.

enemy were crushed before his horses, and no

hand to oppose his onset the enemy
fell dead beneath his blows, and when they had once
fallen they never moved again.
of the

man

lifted a

When

he

the prince of Kheta and the other princes

what

saw
kings

was

happening

saw that

the

kings

that

they were

begged Baineses

to

of the

the
for

afraid,

carried

him

Egyptian troops,

by

surrounded

stop.

But

fled.

had

charge

away from the main body

and

they

Menna, became

called

charioteer,

foes,

The king laughed

and

he

at

his

and told him that he would slay his enemies and

fears,

dash them down in the dust, and bidding him to he

of good courage he charged the

for the sixth

and told them that they were worth-

for being cowards,

less

enemy

After this charge he reproached his charioteers

time.

friends

as

in

the

day of adversity

he

then

enumerated to them the benefits which he had conferred

upon Egypt, and roundly abused them

men.

craven-hearted

enemy touched the

king, and on the

the second days fight a

on the

battle-field

whole plain was

battle

No weapon
man

wielded

for being

by the

morning following

could scarcely find a place

whereon to

set his foot, because the

covered with

corpses.

After the

was over Rameses thought w ith gratitude of

T

his

two noble horses called Victory in Thebes, and The

goddess

Mut

is

content, for

it

was they that had

strengthened his hand and supported him when he was

surrounded by that hostile multitude, and he decreed

B.C. 1333]

that

EGYPTIAN SPEARMEN AND CHARIOTEERS

when he was

in his palace again he

43

would always

have their fodder brought to them in his presence so

that he might see

them

fed

and he did not forget

to

Battle of Raineses II. against the Kheta.

A company of Egyptian spearmen.

mention honourably the charioteer Menna, who alone
out of

all

his

band of trusted servants had remained

the KHETA SURRENDER

44

[B.C. 1333

with him in his brave charge, and he named him the

captain of the horsemen.

There

unfortunately,

is,

no mention of the tame lion which accompanied Rameses

and attacked the

in his chariot,
it

is,

foe

from time to time

however, to be hoped that he was not slain by

the Kheta.

When

saw how serious

the prince of the Kheta

had been his defeat he sent a messenger

to

Rameses

asking him to stay his hand, for he and his princes

saw that
king,

gods Sutekh and

the

and that another

days

would

battle

Rameses hearkened

depopulate the country,

representations,

Bar were

and decided

to

the

fight

more, and to return to the land of Egypt.

worthy that there

is

payment of

Kheta, and

is

heavily.

almost
to these

Kheta no
It is note-

no mention either of the giving of

gifts or of the
it*

the

in

tribute

by the peoples of the

clear that both sides

must have

lost

Rameses was, however, very proud of

his

achievements in the Kheta war, and he caused narratives of it to be inscribed

of

upon the walls

Abydos and Thebes, and

to illustrate the principal

reliefs to

of the temples

be made near them

events in

it,

such as the

capture of the two spies of the Kheta, and the council

of war, and the flight of the defeated to the city of

Kadesh, and the siege of Kadesh, and the death of the

prince of Aleppo,

who was cast down headlong into the

The prince of the Kheta had

waters of the Orontes.

collected

an army eight or nine thousand strong, without

reckoning the horsemen and charioteers,

who seem

to

B.C. 1333]

THE KHETA TROOPS AND THEIR ALLIES 45

have been in number about seven thousand five hundred

the number of the Egyptian soldiers and charioteers
not mentioned.

The prince

The Battle

of

the

Kheta kept

in

of Raineses II. against the Kheta.

reserve a force of the Tuhire,

is

Ufl

but he had no opportunity of despatching them to the

THE NARRATIVE OF PEN-TA-URT

46

who were routed on all

made a great effort

assistance of tlieir comrades

The Kheta

sides.

to eject the

[B.C. 1333

allies evidently

Egyptians from Syria, and

it is

probable

that they would have succeeded but for the incident

who were beaten by

Rameses and made to say where the

of the capture of the two spies,

the soldiers of

Kheta army had taken up

position.

its

That

this

was regarded by the king as of great im-

incident

portance

is

evident from

the

fact that

he caused a

scene to be sculptured on his temple walls, in which

the beating of the spies with long sticks

in fact the Intelligence

Army was

is

represented

Department of the Egyptian

badly managed, and

it

difficult

is

not to

think that disaster was only averted from Rameses

by the fortunate discovery of the two

In the

spies.

account of the battle ascribed to Pen-ta-urt we observe

the same foolish exaggeration which
the

relating

texts

which are found

to

at

is

the early history

Abydos,

and

apparent in
of

Rameses

must be hoped

it

that the soldiers never read the texts on the temple

walls

self

which

in

abused

the

Egyptian Army

is

so roundly

moreover, the sculptures which Rameses him-

caused to be made prove that he was not so utterly

isolated on the field of battle as he represents.

That

the battle against the Kheta was a serious affair

quite clear,

and

it

seems as

if

is

the Egyptians engaged

an enemy numerically superior to themselves and held

their
for

own

against him, but that

is

all

that can be said

them, for Rameses acquired no new territory as the

B.C. 1333]

RENEWED RESISTANCE OF THE KHETA

result of tlie fight,

47

and he regained none of Egypts old

possessions in Syria.

But the power

of the

The Battle

of

Kheta had not been broken by

Rameses

II.

against the Kheta.

Scene in the Egyptian camp.

the Egyptians, and as soon as Rameses had returned

to

Egypt the prince of the Kheta and

his allies began

REVOLTS

48

to collect tlieir forces once

again with Raineses.

IN SYRIA

more and

[B.C. 1333

to prepare to fight

In the eighth and three following

years of his reign Rameses was obliged to march into

Syria to put

down

revolts

which had broken out in and

about the old fortress city of Ascalon

rising

but when this

had been suppressed another broke out

in the

north at Tunep, the inhabitants of which never lost an

opportunity of rebelling against the Egyptian rule.

Rameses claims

to

have captured the city on the second

which he delivered against

assault

it,

and

to

have made

himself master of the neighbouring country, but there

no proof of

is

Matters

Egypt

it,

and

it

improbable that he did

is

went on in this unsatisfactory manner

some years, but

for

at length

so.

for

an arrangement

was made between the prince of the Kheta, who was

called Kheta-sar,

<=

this treaty

definite treaty

The Egyptian

the two kings.

and Rameses

'j

which was embodied in a

II.,

>

between

version of the text of

was inscribed upon the western

face of the

wall which leads from the south wall of the great

Hypostyle Hall at Karnak to the

north,

and

also on the walls of the

composition was thought

this

text

inscribed

much

we learn that the

upon a tablet

of by

original

of silver

pylon on the

first

Ramesseum, and the

Rameses; from

document was

which was deposited

For the hieroglyphic text see Lepsius, Denkmciler iii. pi. 146
and for an English
tom. xiii. p. 153 ff.
,

Bousiant in Recueil

translation see Records of the Past vol. iv. p. 25

,

ff.

B.C. 1333]

TREATY OF RAMESES WITH THE KHETA

in the building in the Delta,

part palace

49

and part

where the king of Egypt loved to live. The

treaty is dated on the twenty-first day of the season

fortress,

Battle of

Rameses

II.

against the Kheta.

Pert, of the twenty-first year of the reign of

II.,

Eameses

and sets forth that at this time the king was in

VOL. v.

KHETA-SAR, PRINCE OF THE KHETA

50

the city

Per-Ramessu-meri-Amen

of

cm

(MMMiil
making

[B.C. 1333

and that

lie

offerings to his father

was

in

the temple

Amen, and

to

Heru-

and Temu, and Ptah, and Sntekh, the son of

khuti,

Nut, and other gods.

bassador

Ra-mes,

Asia,

to

Whilst he was there his am-

leading the Kheta

presence

hand a

P J]

his

ambassador Tarthisehu,
1

\\

came into
|||

who

silver tablet inscribed in the

carried

in

his

Kheta language

with the terms of the treaty which Kheta-sar, the

king of Kheta, declared himself ready to accept and

Kheta-sar refers to the old treaties

abide by.

to

which existed between his ancestors and those of the

king of Egypt, and goes on to say that the treaty now
proposed
of

conformable to the will of

is

Egypt, and

of

and that from now onwards and

Amen

the god

god of Kheta land,

Sutekh the

for ever friendship

and

a right understanding shall exist between himself and

Kheta-sar will be the ally of Rameses, and

Rameses.

Rameses

shall

be his

ally.

He

has always striven

to be friendly with the king of Egypt,

MWW\

(0
^
*

'j

(or,

This
i.

is

Mutallu) waged against

Egypt, and after his death

tom.

and he objected

the war which his brother Mauthenure,

strongly to

(i.e.,

murder by Kheta-sar)

the reading given by Brugsch, Becueil de Monuments

pi. 228, line 5.

KHETA-SAR, PRINCE OF THE KHETA

B.C. 1333]

he ascended the throne of Kheta and strove

He

and his sons

and Eameses

for peace.

evermore be at peace with

will for

Eameses and his sons

he will not invade

51

Egypt,

must not invade Kheta, and he

will

observe the treaty which his great ancestor Saparere,

and

brother

made with the

Egypt

he

kings of Egypt.
If

any
and

troops

invade

shall

foe

Eameses

help

to

command

does not promise to

bring

will

them,

eject

but

and Eameses must send troops to help him

territory be invaded
over,

by any

to restore to the

any reason may wish

foe.

other

to escape

he

troops in person,

his

Each king

if

is,

his

more-

any subjects who

for

from their own country.

All the terms of the treaty refer to the relations which

Kheta-sar wished to exist between himself and Eameses,

and he
of

calls

the gods and goddesses of the land

all

Kheta and

of the land of

Egypt

Among

of his honourable intent.

to be witnesses

these are mentioned

Sutekh, lord of heaven, Sutekh, lord of Kheta, Sutekh,

lord of

Arenna

A/WWV

i,

(|

Sutekh,

lord of

AAAAAA
AAAAAA

Thapu-Arenuta,

>

Sutekh, lord of Paireqa,

lord of Khisasapa,

<=
Saresu,

??

>

Sutekh,

Sutekh,

Sutekh, lord of

lord

of Khirepa

KHETA-SAR, PRINCE OF THE KHETA

52

rs-^i

(Aleppo),
\\

Sutekh, lord of Rekhasna,

IK
P ama

Sutekh, lord of Mukhi-

\\

aa/w\a

8^

lh^

31

Um

^
^ s^

QQ

Then
not

the

everyone

gods

who

of

those

Kheta and

treats

it

him that honoureth

long

life,

servants

the

who

shall

ob-

and a curse upon those who shall

give

and

on

a blessing

follow

this treaty

Shasakhire,

moun tains, and

ress

gods of the land of Qitchauatana,

serve

f Tchai-tath-

<==>

'

XN

khereri,

his

Anthretha

xx

>

AAAAAA

[B.C. 1333

with
it

will preserve

and their

Egypt

will

contempt,

a good

him and

families.

punish

but

reward,

will

and a

his family,

Upon

the

and

silver

tablet were impressed the seal, that is to say a picture,

of the god Sutekh, the seal,

or picture, of Ra, the

lord of heaven, and of Ra, the lord of Arenena, and

the seal of the king of Kheta, Kheta-sar, and of the

queen of Kheta, whose name

^^

is

given as Puukhipa, 1

conn ^ r y
Bouriant, Recueil, tom.

xiii. p.

Qitchauatana.

160.

RAMESES MARRIES A KHETA PRINCESS

B.C. 1333]

The

latter part of the queens

name

lady was of Mitannian origin, and

53

indicates that this

at once calls to

it

remembrance the names of G-ilukhipa and Tatumkhipa,

the sister and daughter of Tushratta, king of Mitanni,

who married kings of Egypt.

itself was a proper name as late

the form

female

slave

Museum,

it

on

small

which was

identification

as b.c. 710, for

herself,

At the end

the

in

tablet

as

which seem

which Rameses

those

add

of

of the

number

of

additional clauses
to it

on his own

and the sending back to their own country of

who

seek to settle in Egypt from Kheta, or in

The

Kheta from Egypt.

of

to

ticket

and which refer to the extradition of male-

initiative,

factors,

bound

felt

British

of the text

to represent the

of a

who was probably

treaty as proposed by Kheta-sar follow a

lines

under

name

occurs as the

perhaps worn

by the woman

a Mitannian slave.

seems that Khipa

It

Kheta regarded himself

treaty proves that the king

as the equal of the king of

Egypt, and that Rameses was obliged to admit that he

was

any

in

reciprocity,

the treaty was

case,

and precludes

one of friendly

all possibility

ence of Egyptian possessions in Syria.

after the

concluding of the treaty,

of the exist-

Thirteen years

i.e.,

in the 34th

year of his reign, Rameses married Ur-maa-neferu-Ra,

,

Kheta,

whom
1

the daughter of the prince of the

he raised to the rank of great queen of

No. K. 3787

see Bezold, Catalogue, p. 564.

THE PRINCE OF KHETA

54

Egypt. Her Kheta name

Abu Simbel

she

teristic conical

garment.

unknown, but on the

is

the

stele at

represented wearing the charac-

hat of the Kheta and the long, coat-

An

allusion

this

to

be made in the speech of the

describing

[B.C. 1333

arrayed like an Egyptian princess,

is

though her father

like

is

EGYPT

VISITS

god Ptah, who, in

which

great things

queen seems to
he has done for

Rameses, says that he has made the land of Kheta to

be subject to his palace, that the inhabitants thereof
bring offerings, that the

possessions

of their chiefs

belong to the king of Egypt, and that at the head of

them

all is

the eldest daughter of the prince of Kheta

who maketh

of the

Soon
of

to

be at peace the heart of the lord

two lands,

after the marriage of his

Egypt the prince

Keti set out to

of

visit

Kheta and

daughter to the king

his friend the prince of

the court of Rameses, and in due

course they arrived at Thebes, where they saw the glory

and
as

state of the princess of

Kheta

in her

new

position

queen of Egypt.

The remembrance of this marriage was preserved

in a remarkable manner by the priests of Khensu,

who

set

up a

stele

to

commemorate the healing

the queens sister by the might of their god.

after the

of

Soon

king had married the Kheta lady Ra-maa1

See Lepsius, Denlcmaler

Lepsius, Derikmuler

iii.

iii.

pi. 196.

pi. 194,

1.

26.

The daughter

of the Asiatic prince

whom

whom Rameses II.

he gave the

name

Ra-neferu.

married, and to

THE PRINCESS OF BEKHTEN

56

ur-neferu messengers came to

was very

J
might

physician

him from her

say that her young sister

country to

be

sent

to

[B.C. 1333

ill,

native

Bent-reshet,

and to ask that a

heal

Rameses

her.

despatched the royal scribe Tehuti-emheb to Bekhten,

but when he arrived there he found that the princess

was possessed of a

The

devil over

father of the princess,

which he had no power.

who

is

described

as the

Prince of Bekhten, sent to Egypt once more and asked

Rameses

to send a

god

to heal his daughter.

There-

upon Rameses went into the temple and asked the

^J ^

god Khensu- Nefei-hetep,

**

he

would

go

to

Bekhten and

heal the

princess,

god nodded his head and consented

the

to

Khensu

After a journey of seventeen months

and

do

so.

arrived

Bekhten, and when he was taken to the place

in

where the

sick

princess

Bent-reshet was, he made

use upon her of his marvellous

she was

healed

straightway.

saving power,

The

devil

and

that had

possessed her came forth out of her and acknowledged

the supremacy of the god of Egypt

Bekhten

tried to keep the

the prince

of

god in the country, but

Khensu willed otherwise, and at length the prince sent

him hack with his priests, and boats, and cavalcade,
and with rich

gifts to

Egypt, where he arrived in the

33rd year of the reign of Rameses

1

II.

The version

Copies of the text will be found in Rosellini, Monumenti

tom.

ii.

pi.

48

and

Prisse,

Monuments,

pi. 24.

of

Storici,

HEALED BY A PRIEST OF KHENSU

B.C. 1333]

the incident here described

was drawn up
the marriage

long after
the king

of

Kheta

with

the

and

seems that the priests

it

made a mistake

princess,

in suppos-

ing that their god went to

Bekhten before the kings

judging

which,

marriage

from

the

Simbel, took

Abu

at

stele

place

the

in

34th year of his reign.

During the years which

followed
in

Rameses
to

campaigns

his

and

Palestine

devoted

the completion

Syria

himself
the

of

buildings which his father

Seti I.

the

had begun, and

erection

which

he

statues

and

and

The

remains whieh

to

shrines

old

various parts of

Nubia.

with

himself,

etc.,

of

to

edifices

adorned

of

obelisks,

repairs

of

the
in

Egypt and

monumental
found

are

from one end of Egypt to

the

other

testify

to

the

57

USURPATION OF OBELISKS

58
vastness of
is

Rameses was

sphinxes,

statues,

a temple

way

upon

whole

as

and that when he repaired

etc.,

had

edifice

name

caused his

walls, doorposts, lintels,

make

to

it

in the habit of usurping

sanctuary he

or

inscribed

building operations generally, but

liis

certain that

[B.C. 1333

the

been

think that

beholder

by

erected

such

in

etc.,

be

to

added columns of texts containing

the

He

himself.

glorifications

of

himself to the obelisks set up by his ancestors, and

it

is

how he

wonderful

contrived to find the means

which resulted in his name being found in every temple

and

fortress,

Besides

and sanctuary of any importance in Egypt.

he

this,

re-worked

monuments

the

ancestors, with the result that the

made them disappeared

The

greatest

the famous

of all

names

of his

of those

who

entirely.

the

works of Rameses

which

temple in Nubia,

is

II.

is

hewn out

of the solid rock of a mountain on the left or west

bank of the Nile

to

Amen

of

at

Thebes,

Abu

Simbel.

Ra-Heru-khuti

and Ptah of Memphis, and in

was

what an
for

of

Heliopolis,

Rameses

Whether

re-worked, or modified,

it

earlier
is

king had

certain that

begun

II.

the credit

whole building belongs to this king or

whether he

us,

dedicated

is

later times

himself worshipped- there.

for the

It

or

not,

completed

matters

little

this temple is one

to

of the

most marvellous architectural -works of the ancient

Egyptians.

The temple

is

approached by a

steps leading to a kind of court

flight of

here in front of the

AND TEMPLES BY RAMESES

B.C. 1333]

59

II.

temple, two on each side of the door, are four seated

colossal statues of Raineses II., each sixty feet high,

which have been hewn out of the living rock.

The

front of the temple

wide and
cornice

is

is

about one hundred feet

over ninety feet in height

above

decorated with twenty-one dog-headed

The temple

apes.

about 185 feet long, and consists

itself is

The temple

of Raineses II. at

From
of a large hall

is

it

Abu

Simbel.

a photograph by A. Beato, Luxor.

measuring about 60

feet

by 25

feet,

wherein are eight square pillars about 30 feet high,

each with a colossal figure
standing

against

it,

about 35 feet by 25

of

Osiris

17 feet high

and of a small hall measuring

feet,

supported by four pillars

this hall are the sanctuary

and the

altar.

in

In connection

RAMESES REBUILDS TANIS

6o

may

with this temple

[B.C. 1333

be mentioned that dedicated to

the goddess Hathor which

the north of

lies to

it

here

the front of the temple measures about 92 feet by 40 feet,

and four of the

six statues,

which are over 30

feet in

height, are of Raineses II., while the other two are of his

wife Nefert-ari-mert-en-Mut

Passing to the north of Egypt we find that Rameses

II. practically rebuilt Tanis,

and

to

which he made his capital

which he gave an importance almost equal to

that of Thebes or Memphis.

It is

that few of the kings of the

New Empire

realize the

great importance

near Syria;

when

Thebes was too

a remarkable fact

seemed

of possessing a capital
far

away

for the

king,

there, to be able to control events effectively in

the Delta, and

it

was impossible

Palestine from that distance.

city in the

obelisks

to strike quickly in

Tanis was a beautiful

reign of Rameses, and

its

temples and

must have provoked the wonder and admira-

tion of all the

Semitic

settlers

part of the

in that

country; curiously enough, Rameses,

who

in

Thebes

was never tired of proclaiming his devotion to

and of boasting what great things he had done
god,

to

was

in Tanis always paying

and Bar, and other

deities,

honour

Amen

for the

to Sutekh,

who were abominated by

the Egyptians of Upper Egypt as being the gods of the

Hyksos whom they

so

much

detested.

It

may have

been an act of political expedience on the part of

Rameses

II.

to proclaim his

worship of Semitic gods

THE STELE OF FOUR HUNDRED YEARS

B.C. 1333]

in a country which was in-

habited by Semitic peoples,

but

not an act which

is

it

would have approved

itself

to the

great warrior kings

of the

XVIIIth Dynasty;

his toleration of the Semites

by the

further proved

is

Stele

Years
i.e.,

of

Four Hundred

(see vol.

p. 157),

iii.

the stele so called be-

cause

dated in the four

it is

hundredth year of the era

which began with the year

of the founding of the city

by Nubti, a Hyksos

of Tanis

king.

At Heliopolis and

Memphis Kameses

carried

out some important archi-

and

tectural works,

at the

former place, according to

Pliny, ]

he

up

set

At

obelisks.

four

Abydos

he

completed the temple which

his father Seti I.
to

build,

in

the

had begun

and he

tells

inscriptions

1
Bk. xxxvi. chap. 14 Rameses
here called Sesosthes.
;

is

us

which

6l

TEMPLE OF

62
lie

placed

to

be

on

died.

great

things
the

which

did

and of

which he made

calls

it,

Rameses

as the ruins of

why

stand

or the

it

it

was a

Memnonium

solid

and

testify,

so little of

to his

it

and handsome
is

edifice,

not easy to under-

has remained to

it

Strabo

as

temple which he dedicated

II. built a

god Osiris

to the

I.,

made

to

At no great distance from

Setis reply.

the temple of Seti

and

temple,

the god, and of the speeches which he

father,

his

length the

at

the

for

prayers

wherein

year

relates

also

[B.C. 1333

ordered the works

very

he

of the

texts

had

lie

the

in

Rameses

father

gives

walls

its

continued

AND

OSIRIS

The

us.

walls were ornamented with reliefs illustrating events

Kheta war, and

in the

King

in one of its corridors

was a

List (now in the British Museum), which was

evidently a copy of that set up by his father in his

temple.

At Thebes he began

his

building works in the

early years of his long reign and, as far as can be

seen, they were continued

He

it.

completed the great Hypostyle Hall at Karnak

and added

Rameses
Seti
it,

almost to the end of

I.

I.

to it
set

fifty-four

up one

seventy-nine.

and inscribed upon

countries

columns

of the pillars,

He
it

built

list

great portion of the temple of

grandfather

and his father

pylon leading to

of

which he had conquered.

at the east

his

Amen

the

He

cities

and

enclosed

with a wall, and

end of the temple he erected a small temple

and built a colonnade.

He

usurped the obelisk which

HYPOSTYLE HALL AT KARNAK

B.C. 1333]

Thothmes

I.

had

and

built,

had
it

up

set
is

in front of the pylon

63

which he

more than probable that Rameses

usurped some of the large statues on which his name

appears.

He

added

reliefs illustrating

Obelisk and Pylon of Rameses

II. at

temple-buildings, and

many

re-

Luxor.

From a photograph by

cording his conquests upon

and texts

A. Beato, Luxor.

of the walls of the

among the latter is a copy of his

The presence of this text upon

treaty with the Kheta.

THE RAMESSEUM

64

[B.C. 1333

the walls of the great sanctuary of

Amen

which had

been built by the great kings of the XYIIIth Dynasty

with the tribute that they forced the Kheta and other
Asiatic nations to pay is significant of the decline of the

power of Egypt in the reign of Rameses

temple of Amen-hetep
finished at his death,

which

III.,

Rameses

To the

II.

this king left un-

added largely.

II.

built the large front court with a colonnade,

He

and a court

with porticoes, and a huge pylon, before which he placed

standing, and he set

up two huge red granite

with his names

inscribed

two seated and four

of himself,

six colossal statues

and

One

titles.

obelisks
of these

obelisks is in the Place de la Concorde in Paris, and

the other remains in situ

high and

said to

is

Rameses

is

build

to

about 80 feet

tons.

temple which

completed the funeral

II.

had begun

father

his

each obelisk

weigh about 250

Kurna, and he

at

did some repairs to the temple of Hatshepset in

al-Bahari

works
the

would seem that

it

at

other

Nile.

The

Rameses

temples
greatest

which was dedicated

also

This

Rameses

name
II.,

is

of

to

the

ot

of

the

all

Amen-Ra

first

it is

1i

i.

probably the
4) under the

Strabo called

pylon Rameses

said to represent the

Usr-Maat-Ra,

on

buildings

of

Osymandyas;

On

Der

on the western banks

building to which Diodorus refers (Bk.

name of Tomb
Memnonium.

carried

Thebes was the Ramesseum,

Western

in

he

first

II.

it

the

caused

part of the prenomen of

COLOSSAL STATUES OF RAMESES

B.C. 1333]

65

II.

scenes in the Klieta war to be sculptured, and in front

up a

of the second pylon he set

which

self

Egypt

it

weighed
says,

was 60

less

The

colossal statue of

him-

probably the largest statue known in

is

feet

in

place

is

and cannot have

height,

than 885 tons.

Of the

statue Diodorus

not only commendable for

greatness, but admirable for

its

cut

its

and workman-

Fa$ade of the Ramesseum.

From a photograph by A.

ship, and the excellency of the stone.

a work there

is

Beato, Luxor.

In so great

not to be discerned the least flaw,

or any other blemish.

Upon it there
inscription
I am Osymandyas, king of
if

is

this

kings

any would know how great I am, and where I

lie,

let

VOL, V.

him

excel

me

in any

of

my

works.

The

THE MINES OF WADI

66
existence

of an inscription

meaning,

is,

Eameses

ULAKI

on the statue with this

of course, wholly imaginary.

built a temple in

[B.C. 1333

At El-kab

honour of the gods Thoth,

Horus, and Nekhebet, and remains of works carried

Kom

out by him are found at

Gebel

and

and about Aswan and on

at

various places in

The temples

the Island of Elephantine.

Walli and

Silsila,

Abu Simbel have been

Ombo,

Bet

al-

already referred

to,

at

may

and of the works which he carried out in Nubia

be specially mentioned

Husen dedicated
gods
is
its
is

1.

to Ptah,

temple at

2. the

hewn out

The rock temple

at Gerf

Hathor, Anuqet, and other

Wadi

Sebua, part of which

and

of the rock, with its rows of sphinxes

statues of the king

the temple at Derr, which

3.

hewn out of the rock.

To carry on all these works must have

great expenditure of labour and money, and

entailed
it

easy to see whence the latter was obtained.

not

is

Tribute

from the kings of Palestine and Syria had ceased to

flow into Egypt, and the products of the

hardly supply

all

the needs of

source of revenue were

were situated in the

tlie

Wadi

Bameses

II.

Sudan could

One

great

famous gold mines which

Ulaki,

worked during the reign of Seti

and which had been

I.

there

are

no

records to show that these mines were worked by the

Egyptians at an

earlier period,

that they were, and

but

it is

most probable

we know that the supply

which could be obtained from them was

large to

make them worth working

in

of gold

sufficiently

Boman and

even

THE STELE OF KUBBAN

B.C. 1333]

in

The portion

Arab times.

by Seti

I.

Wadi

Ulaki worked

was near the modern village of Kubban,

which marks the

Contra Pselchis

and

was

Near

this

important stele which

reign of Rameses
light on the

of the

site

it

Dakkeh, and

Kubban.

of tlie

67

Roman

nearly opposite to the modern

is

approached

II.,

from the Nile at

was found a large and

place
is

fortress called

dated in the third year of the

and which throws considerable

working of the gold mines

and describes how the

difficulties

at that time,

which were experi-

enced through want of water were overcome.

the

first

titles,

and state that he

of the land

his

After

few lines which record the kings names and

is

the conqueror of Kesh and

of the Negroes,

extends to

territory

pXi

Rameses

At

the south
is

made

to

as

far

and that
as

say that

Kari,

gold

appears in the mountains at the mere mention of his

name, even as

it

does at the
pXj (he., the

name

of

Horus of Baka,

modern Kubban).

are then told that on a certain day

Rameses

We

II. sat in

council with his nobles discussing the affairs of the

gold-producing land, when reports were laid before him

stating that the mines could not be worked because

there was no water to be

man and
1

This

had on the

road,

and that both

beast therefore died of thirst on the road to

name

is

the equivalent of the Egyptian

P-Serket, the city of the scorpion.

(^3|P

THE STELE OF KUBBAN

68

and from the mines.

[B.C. 1333

^^

gold in the country of Akaita,

(|

(|f)
^

but as there was no water on the way to

such as

except

The king then ordered that the

was forthcoming.
of the

mines should be brought into his

presence, and expressed his willingness

When

their recommendations.

carry out

to

they had come in and

them the

praised his beautiful face, he described to

configuration

the country,

of

and inquired of them as

g)

it,

from the skies in rain, no more gold

fell

overseers

mnch

All agreed that there was

AAAAAA

(j

^^

AAAAAA

to the possibility of boring a

~T

on the road the overseers

XI
aw\m
approved the suggestion joyfully, and praised the king for
aaaaw

well,

VJ

his

They referred to the time when he

wisdom and sense.

was the deputy

ruler,

of the country, and

-

[j

spoke of the great buildings which he had erected

when he was the

governor,

of the whole land, a position

country, and that

which he seems

Then the governor

to

Nubia
in the

when

Seti

I.

worked the mines he

AAAAAA

(3
^
AAAAAA

nn
it,

have

of

dug a well 120 cubits in depth,

road to

had never been any water

occupied for ten years.

declared that there

Be-heri

AAAAAA
AAAAAA

at

AAAAAA

a certain

but no water appeared

-j-

AAAAAA

place

finally

XI

on the

he advised

the king to speak to his father, the Nile-god Hapi,

THE BUBASTITE CANAL

B.C. 1333]

on the subject,

for

69

he was sure that he would send

water into the waste and desert country

only asked him to do so.

mined

to dig a well

scribe with

the borers

if

Rameses

Rameses, however, deter-

and despatched a royal

there,

workmen to carry out the royal commands

set to work with a will, and at a depth of

twelve cubits they found water, which welled up in

such quantities that people were able to

in boats, like the inhabitants of the

it

Delta

which Rameses

II.

undertook in connexion with the

from Bubastis to the Bitter Lakes,

and which he intended

Red

existed
his

about on

Equally useful to the country were the works

1
.

canal which led

the

sail

marshes in the

Sea.

in

son

lengthen until

part

the time of Seti

finished

carried

it

seems

the work

have

it

I.,

but neither he nor

step

canal was finally taken to the

to

only seems to have

Nekau, a king of

it.

reached

of

Rameses

it;

widened or deepened
Dynasty,

to

Some

further,

Red Sea

XXYIth
and the

in the reign

of Darius.

Rameses married

Maat and
several

Ast-nefert,

children,

two

his

Qj

both

^J

sons

sisters,

by

Nefert-ari-meri-

whom

he had

and daughters, and he

married at least three of his own daughters, namely,

The text was first translated by Dr. Birch in Trans. Royal Soc.
and see Records of the Past vol. viii. p. 75 ff. the
1852
Egyptian text will be found in Prisse, Monuments, pi. 21. The
stele itself is in the possession of the Comte St. Ferriol, and is
preserved in his mansion at Uriage in France.
1

Lit.,

THE WIVES OF RAMESES

AAA/Wv

Banta- Antu,

v:

number

whom

B-

\_7 A/NAAAA

\?7

Q^

Amen -merit

[B.C. 1333

II.

<s>

anti

Nebt-taui,

anc^

Besides these wives he had a large

of concubines, both

and native, by

foreign

he became the father

of

scores

literally,

of,

children; several lists of his children were made, eg.,

Abydos,

at

Thebes,

Wadi

Sebua,

and Abu Simbel,

but as far as can be seen none of them was intended

be complete, and they contained

to

only

selections

longest

list

is

of
at

sons

his

Wadi

and

names

the

daughters

Sebua, where

we

one daughters. 1

Of

his sons

their frequent mention

Amen-her-khepesh-f,

who

in the

Ast-Nefert, was a
several high

Sem

priest

He

see from the

be noticed

Seti.

His son

son of the queen

and he held

and was the true

he was a

and was held in high repute

we may

as

known from

may

of Ptah,

ecclesiastical, offices,

founder of the Serapeum

learning,

and
the

the

fifty-

Pa-Ra-her-unami-f,

Ra-messu,

Amen-her-unami-f, Amen-Meri,

Kha-em-Uast,

are well

texts

The

find

names of one hundred and eleven sons and about

of

man

of great

as a magician,

famous Romance of Setna. 2

appears to have conducted the government of the

For tbe text see Lepsius, Den'kmtiler, iii. pi. 179.

It was first translated by Brugsch in Rev. Archeologique.
tom. xvi. p. 161 ff.
1

ser.

ii.

THE SONS OF RAMESES

B.C. 1333]

71

II.

country for about twenty-five years before bis death,

which took place in the 55th year of the reign of

Rameses

II.,

and he was succeeded in this duty^by his

brother Mer-en-Ptah-hetep-her-Maat,

who

Tomb of Rameses It.

From a photograph by A.

is

thirteenth

Entrance to the

in the list of the sons of

Rameses

formed the* duties of viceroy

when

for

II.

Beato, Luxor.

he had per-

about twelve years

his father died, in the 67th year of his reign,

aged about one hundred years.

TOMB OF RAMESES

72

Eameses
the

Tombs

a tomb for himself in the Valley of

II. built

Kings

of the

[B.C. 1333

II.

at Thebes,

and we may assume

that he was laid to rest therein with

due pomp and

all

ceremony, and that the funeral furniture was of a

man

character which befitted the rank of the

it

had been made.

of professional

XXth

The tomb became the prey

tomb robbers towards the

for

whom

of a

gang

close of the

Dynasty, and probably everything that could be

carried

was

was possible

In the time of the Ptolemies

stolen.

to visit the lower chambers, but it

seem that not many centuries

and

corridors

whole of the

later the

became

chambers

it

would

with

filled

sand.

Champollion and Rosellini forced their way into parts

of the tomb,

and in

spite of the heat

and want of

succeeded in obtaining some information as to

ornamentation,

Lepsius

etc.

sufficiently to enable

him

out

cleared

make

to

air

its size,

the

sand

a useful plan of the

corridors and chambers, but he found that the wall-

decorations had been almost entirely destroyed by the

mud and
corridors

gravel which
into

the

sarcophagus chamber.

It

seems

none of the great architects and

that

astonishing

had flowed down the steep

master builders who were in the employ of Rameses

warned him of what, from the nature of

must happen

The
in a

to his

tomb when rain

II.

its situation,

fell.

mummy of Rameses II. was found at Der al-Bahari

wooden

under the

and the

coffin,

in which

it

seems to have been placed

XXth Dynasty, for the decorations of the coffin,

style of the writing

found upon

it,

indicate that

MUMMY OF RAMESES

B.C. 1333]

which

as the period to

belongs.

it

was either broken or had

II.

73

The

original coffin

and the high

fallen to pieces,

had a new

Amen, Her-Heru, v=r

priest of

mummy;

one made for the

in the troubled times of

Amen

the

XXth

II.

out of his tomb, and carried him to the tomb of

Seti

I.

Dynasty the

safety,

for

priests of

took Eameses

and subsequently he was again

removed to the tomb of queen An-Hapu, which was

situated

Amen-hetep
later

III.

had

new bandages.
The mummy

of

body was found

The head

is

the body, and

1,

had

coverings

to

called

provided

the

with

unrolled

by

mummified

the
6 in.

ft.

comparison

rather long;

mummy

when the swathing

removed

about

Pai-netchem,

was

II.

1886, 1 and

been
be

small in
is

Amen,

of

Rameses

M. MasperQ on June
and

Nearly a century

built his tomb.

high-priest

the

Biban al-Muluk where

of the

that part

in

to

the

in

the

hair,

length.
rest

of

which was

white at the time of death, has been stained a light

yellow colour by the medicaments
process of mummification.

employed in the

The forehead

is

low and

narrow, the eyebrows are well arched, and the hair on

them

is

close

to

white and bushy, the eyes are small, and

the

nose,

the nose

is

lie

long and thin, and

somewhat hooked, the temples are hollow, and the

cheekbones prominent

the ears are round, and have

See Les Momies,

p.

560 ff.

THE vanity of RAMESES

74
slits in

them

in

[B.C. 1333

II.

which earrings must have hung before

they were stolen by the tomb robbers, the jaws are

firm and strong, the chin
large, the lips are thick,

what
for.

soft,

and the

is

though some-

teeth,

are white, and were apparently well cared

When Rameses

fragile,

prominent, the mouth

is

his bones were

died

weak and

and his muscles had become atrophied through

senile decay.

M. Maspero thinks 1 that

at the time of

death he must have been almost one hundred years

old,

and he describes the impression which he received,

concerning the character of the king after he had unrolled his

mummy,

masque de

la

in these words

momie donne

En

resume,

le

tres suffisamment 1idee

de ce quetait le

masque du roi vivant une expres sion peu intelligente, peutetre legerement bestiale,

mais de

la fierte, de Eobstination, et

un

air de

majeste

souveraine qui perce encore sous lappareil grotesque

de

rembaumement.

This summary agrees very well

with the character of Rameses

II.

which we can deduce

from his inscriptions and monuments.

In his youth

he was brave and active, and proved himself

capable though hard ruler
himself to a

life

to be a

in his old age he devoted

of comparative inactivity, and indulged

in the pleasures of his palace

and the society of the

harimat meanwhile retaining the nominal sovereignty

,

of the whole country.

He was

vain and boastful, as

his inscriptions show, and he allowed his court scribes

to write concerning his life that
1

Op.

cit., p.

which he must have

563.

B.C. 1333]

known

DECLINE OF THE POWER OF EGYPT

to be untrue,

75

Egyptologists have

or perhaps

misunderstood their statements, because the facts are

often buried under heaps of high-sounding words.
finally

And

he was not justified in claiming the sovereignty

Head from a

statue of Raineses
British

of Palestine

II.

King

of Egypt, b.c. 1330.

30,448.

and Western Asia, or of Nubia as

Kari, for nothing

Eameses

II.,

Museum, No.

can

disguise

the

fact

far as

that under

the decline of the power of Egypt set

in,

that she did not regain any of her old possessions, and

RAMESES

76

AND SESOSTRIS

II.

[B.C. 1333

that her dominions had shrank to the size which they

were before the conquests of the great kings of the

XVIIIth Dynasty.
In the histories of Herodotus and Diodorus, and in
the works of several other classical writers the mighty

and exploits of a hero

deeds

described
writers

or alluded to

had any

II. the

called

Sesostris

lived,

but

and that

II.,

Egyptian name Senusert,

original

to the history of

may

Rameses

it

i.e.,

is

is

undoubt-

derived from the old

Usertsen,

hero of the Sesostris legend was

a king of this dynasty

of

quite

Sesostris is certainly not a

edly correct in saying that

by-name

it is

Greeks united the legends and romance

form of that of Rameses, and Prof. Sethe

and that the

are

not certain that these

when he

The name

of Sesostris.

is

of his works correspond with those

performed by Rameses

Rameses

clear idea

many

certain that

it

who bore
II.,

this

Sesetsu,

name.

But a

''HR

very well have contributed to the formation of

Sesostris,

and why any one of

who bore the name

Usertsen, or Senusert,

name

the legendary

the kings

should be chosen as the

romances

who made

cannot

be

said.

popular hero

The Sesoses

of
of

historic

Pliny

2
,

the third obelisk at Rome, appears, as

von K. Sethe, Leipzig, 1900.

See

Lib. xxx vi. 15.

Sesostris,

Sesoses appears to be derived from the form

MYTHICAL EXPLOITS OF RAMESES

B.C. 1333]

Prof. Sethe has said, to be Usertsen

his sons

the

Nuncoreus

name

prenomen

^ uul

waged war

of

may

Raineses

like

especially as

I.,

II.,

not

II., or built

Nub-kau-Ra,

have done.

the other hand,

great temples, or

many

attributed to Sesostris of which no

found in the history of Rameses

pelled to

come

Greek legend

to

is

II.,

he

that

record

that he did the things which Rameses II.

On

77

very well represent

Amen-em-hat

but history does

II.

is

known

exploits

to

are

can be

parallels

and we are com-

the conclusion that the Sesostris of

a hero round whose

name

the legends

and traditions of many great kings and warriors have

gathered, and he must be put in the category of such

popular characters as Gilgamesh, the narrative of whose

exploits delighted the Sumerians

and Babylonians

for

thousands of years, and Nimrod, and Alexander the

Great, to

whom

tradition has ascribed the

power and conquests of dozens of

whose

history,

having

languages, has charmed

been

men

wisdom and

historical heroes,

translated

into

and

many

of every nationality from

Malayia in the East to England in the West.

The

fullest account of the hero Sesostris is

given by

Diodorus Siculus, who not only repeats some of the

matters which are

him, but, what

of others

is far

which well

concerning his

Herodotus.

related

life

more

by Herodotus concerning
interesting, adds a

illustrate the

and exploits

The expedition

of

number

growth of the legends

after

Rameses

the

death of

II.

down the

HISTORY OF SESOSTRIS

78

Red Sea

was, of course, nothing but an expedition to

the country of Punt, and though

larger than usual,

Rameses

There

is

in Bactria and

II.

countries, but yet

it

may have been

must not be regarded

it

expedition of conquest.
of

[B.C. 1333

as a great

no record of conquests
remote

other

Asiatic

seems that his name must have

it

penetrated as far as those distant lands, for the prince

Bekhten sent

of

and

as

we

ask him

to

and the next time

are

to send a

months journey from Egypt

The

away.

facts

of the

to heal his

Bekhten was

that

told

to send a physician,

first

god

daughter
seventeen

must have been

it

been given above, but in order that the reader

enabled easily to compare legend with
concerning

from

Sesostris

the

worthy

Prynce

fact

may

be

extracts

works of Herodotus

the

and Diodorus are here appended.

far

reign of Rameses II. have

Herodotus says

Sesostris^

Him

the

firste of all

the kings of Aegypt to

have passed tbe narrow Seas

of Arabia in longe Ships

pryestes recounte

or Gallyes, and brought in subiection to the

Qrowne

all those People that marche a longe the redde Sea.

From whence

retyringe backe againe the same way,

hee came and gathered a greate power of men, and

tooke his passage over the
lande,

whether

conquering
ever

so

and
hee

waters into the mayne

subduing

Such

went.

Countreyes

all

as

he found

valiaunte and hardye not refusinge to ieoparde their

safety in the defence
1

and maynetenaunce of their

B.R.s translation,

fol.

95 b

f.

ACCORDING TO HERODOTUS

B.C. 1333]

liberty, after

tlie

79

victory obtayned, bee fixed in theyr

countrey certayne pyllers or Crosses of Stone, wherein

were

countrey, and

names

the

ingrauen

how by

the

of

kinge and the

owne proper

his

puissaunce he had made them- yelde.

and

force

Contrarywyse,

such as without controuersie gave themselves into his

handes, or with litle stryfe

brought to relent

he planted

were

secret partes of

women,

and

abyding.

effeminate

crosses,

litle

as

and importrayed the

carued

to signifie to the posterity the

courage of the people there

In this sorte he trauayled with his army

where he made conquest of the Scythians

and Thracians, which seemeth

farthest

poynt of his voyage

land also his titles and

bloudshed were

and in their region

by and downe the mayne, passing out of Asia into

Europe,

lesse

also,

and builte up

Pillers

before, wherein

base

and

with them

and not beyonde.

steps

to

for so

have bene

much

the

as in their

marks are apparantly seene

Herefro hee began to measure his

back agayne incamping his powre at the ryuer

Phasis

where, I

am

not able to discusse, whether king

Sesostris hi mselfe planted any parte of his army in that

place ever after to possesse yt countrey

or

whether

some of his souldiers wearyed with continuall peregrina-

tion and trauayle, toke

rested there
prince Sesostris

up

their

This

making

mansion place and

noble and victorious

his return to Aegypt,

(by report of ye priests) to a place

1

B.R.s translation,

fol.

9 6b.

came

named Daphnae

The modern

Tell Defenneh.

HISTORY OF SESOSTRIS

8o

pelusiae, with an infinite

out of al

[B.C. 1333

trayne of forraine-people

Nations by him subdued

where being

very curteously met and welcomed by his brother,

whom

and protectour of the countrey, he was also by ye

same

in

inuited

to

bis wife, and

bis

bad

he

absence

bis

left

banquet,

princely

Viceroy

for

himselfe,

The bouse wbereinto

children.

they were entered, being compassed about with dry

matter,
set on

was suddaynely by the treachery of bis brother

fire,

which be perceiving toke counsayle with

bis wife then present,

cruelty,

bow to escape and auoicle the

The woman either of a readier wit or riper
advised him to cast two of his sixe children

into the

fire,

daunger.

passe

he put bis

made

make way

to

time not suffering

for himselfe

him

wyues counsayle

a bridge through the

to preserve the

rest

to

first

fire

make any long

stay,

and

of two of bis children,

Sesostris in this sorte

aliue.

of

rest to

in speedy practise,

delivered from the cruell treason

of bis brother,

and the

all

and malicious devise

tooke reuenge

of bis

trecherous villany and'diuelish intent: in the next

place bethinking himselfe in
the multitude
afterwards
captures

be

what

affayres to bestowe

which be bad brought with him, whome

diuersely

employed

for

by

these

were certayne huge and monstrous stones

rolled and drawne to the

wise, were

many

the riuer into

Temple

of Vulcane.

Like-

trenches cut out and deriued from

most places of the countrey, whereby

the land being aforetime passable by cart

and horse,

ACCORDING TO HERODOTUS

B.C. 1333]

81

was thencefoorth bereaved of that commodity

all the time ensuing, the

for the

for in

conntrey of Aegypt being

most parte playne and eqnall,

through the

is

creekes and windings of the ditches brought to that

passe, that neyther horsse nor wayne can have any
course or passage from one place to another.

Howbeit,

Sesostris inuented this for the greater benefite and

commodity of the lande, to the ende that such townes

and

as

cities

might not

were farre remooued from the

penury and want of water, which at

haue deriued and brought

to

them

riuer,

pinched with the

at the fall of the floud be

all

times they

The

in trenches.

same King made an equall distribution of the whole

countrey to all his subjects, allotting to euery

man

the lyke portion and quantitie of ground, drawne out

and limited

by a fouresquare fourme.

Heereof the

king himselfe helde yeerely reuenewes, every one

being rated

at a

certayne rent and pension, which

annually he payd to the crowne, and

of the

floud

it

fortuned

if at

the rising

any mans portion

to

be

ouergone by the waters, the king thereof was aduertised,

who forthwyth

sent

certayne to

survey ye

ground, and to measure ye harmes which the flood

had done him, and

to

leavy out the

crowne rent

according to the residue of the land that remayned.

Heereof sprang the noble science of Geometry, and

from thence was

translated

touching the Pole and

rule,

into

Greece.

Gnomon (which

is to

For

as

say) the

and the twelue partes of the day, the Graecians

VOL. V.


HISTORY OF SESOSTRIS

82

tooke them of the Babylonians.

[B.C. 1333

This King Sesostris

held the Empyre alone, leaning in Aethiopia before

1

the temple of Vulcane

posteritie, to wit,

certayne

monuments

to the

certayne images of stone, one for

hymselfe, another for his wife, beeyng eache of

thirtie cubites

them

the foure images also of hys fonre

sonnes, beeyng

each of them twentie cubites apeece.

In processe of time

when

King Darius

the image of

that gouerned Persia should have bene placed before

the picture of Sesostris, the priest of

Vulcane which

serued in the temple woulde in no wise permit

bee done, denying that Darius

like exploits that Sesostris

it

to

had euer achieued the

had done.

Who,

besides

the conquering of sundrie other nations (not inferiour

in number

to

those

which had been overcome by

Darius) had also brought in subiection

couragious

whyche

and

cause,

it

valiaunt

people

of

most

the

Scythia

for

were agaynst reason to preferre

hymselfe in place before him unto whome he was

inferiour in chiualry, whiche bold aunswere of the
priest,

King Darius tooke

welynough.

in good parte

and brooked

Sesostris dying, the seate imperiall

came

to his son Pheco.

The

history of Sesostris according

as follows

Seven descents

who

to

Diodorus

is

after (they say), Sesostris reigned,

excelled all his ancestors in great

and famous

Nubia.

I.e.,

The rock-hewn temple

at

Abu Simbel

is

here referred

to.

B.C. 1333]

ACCORDING TO DIODORUS SICULUS

actions.

But not only the Greek

83

writers differ

among

themselves about the king, hut likewise the Egyptian

priests and poets relate various and different stories

concerning him.

We

shall relate such as are

most

probable and agreeable to those signs and marks

that are yet remaining in Egypt to confirm them.

After his birth his father

performed a noble

becoming a king, he caused

all

act,

and

throughout Egypt,

that were born the same day with his son, to he

brought together; and together with his son

bred

to be

up with the same education, and instructed

the same

discipline

and exercises, conceiving

in

that,

by being thus familiarly brought up together, and

conversing with one another, they would be always
loving and most faithful friends, and the best fellow-

soldiers in

thing

for

the wars.

Providing, therefore, every-

the purpose,

he caused the boys to be

all

exercised daily in the schools with hard and difficult

labours;

as that

a hundred
means,

were

and

none should eat until he had run

four-score

when they came

fit

either to be

any brave

or noble

furlongs

to be at

this

mens estate, they

commanders, or

action,

and by

to

undertake

both in respect of the

vigour and strength of their bodies, and the excellent

endowments of their minds.

Sesostris

in

the

first

place being sent with an army into Arabia, by his

father (with

whom went

bred up with him),

toiled

his companions that were

and troubled himself with

the hunting and killing of wild beasts; and then

HISTORY OF SESOSTRIS

84

having

overmastered

at last

[B.C. 1333

his

all

and

fatigues

wants of water and provision, he conquered all that

barbarous nation, which was never before that time

subdued.
parts,

Afterwards, being sent into the western

he conquered the greatest part of Libya, being

as yet but

Coming

youth.

to

the crown after

the death of his father, encouraged

successes,

by

his

former

he designed to subdue and conquer the

whole world.

Some

he was stirred up

report that

by his daughter Athyrte to undertake the gaining

of the empire of the world

for being a

an extraordinary understanding, she

her

father, that the conquest

couraged

him by

successes

by the

their
entrails

made

woman
it

was easy; others

divinations,

foretelling

of the sacrifices,

of

out to
enhis

by their

dreams in the temples, and prodigies seen in the

air.

There are some also that

write,

that

when

Sesostris was born, Vulcan appeared to his father

in his sleep, and told

him that the

should be conqueror of the universe

was

the reason

why

child then born

;

and that that

his 'father assembled all of the

like age, and bred them up together with his son,

to

make way

height

for

him with more

of imperial dignity;

ease to rise to that

and that when he was

grown to mans estate, fully believing what the god

had foretold, he undertook at length this expedition.

To this purpose he first made it his chief concern

to gain the love and goodwill of all the Egyptians,

judging

it

necessary in

order

to

effect

what he

ACCORDING TO DIODORUS SICULUS

B.C. 1333]

85

designed, so far to engage his soldiers, as they should

willingly

and readily venture, nay,

their generals,

lose their lives for

whom

and that those

he should leave

behind him, should not contrive any rebellion in his

absence

to this end, therefore, he obliged everyone,

to the utmost of his power, working upon some by

money,

others,

by giving them lands, and many by

free pardons, and upon

all

and courteous behaviour.

were

condemned

for

whom

fair words,

He

and

affable

pardoned those that

high treason, and freed

were in prison for debt,

of

by

all

by paying what they owed,

He

there was a vast multitude in the gaols.

divided the whole country into thirty-six parts,

the

that

Egyptians

call

Nomi, over every one of which he

appointed a governor,
kings revenue,

which

who should take

and manage

all

care of the

other affairs relating

to their several and respective provinces.

these he chose the strongest

Out

of

and ablest men, and

raised an army answerable to the greatness of his

design, to the

number

of six

hundred thousand

foot,

and twenty-four thousand horse, and twenty- seven

thousand chariots of war; and over

regiments and battalions, he
brought

all

the several

made those who had been

up with him commanders, being such

been used

to martial exercises,

hood hot and zealous

virtuous, and

after that

who were

as

had

and from their childwhich was brave and

knit together as brothers in

love and affection, both to the king, and one to

another, the

number

of

whom

were about seventeen

HISTORY OF SESOSTRIS

86

Upon

hundred.

[B.C. 1333

these companions of his he bestowed

large estates in lands, in the richest parts of Egypt,

that they

might not be in the

least

reserving only their attendance

Having

first

want of anything,

upon him

in the war.

marched

therefore rendezvoused his army, he

against the Ethiopians inhabiting the south, and

having conquered them,

them

to

pay him

tribute of ebony, gold, and elephants teeth.

Then he

forced

sent forth a navy of four hundred sail into the

Sea, and was the

By the

first

help of this

Egyptian that built long

fleet,

he gained

all

Eed

ships.

the islands of

this Sea, and subdued the bordering nations as far

as

But he himself marching forward with

to India.

his land army, conquered all Asia, for he not only

invaded those nations which Alexander the Mace donian afterwards subdued, but likewise those

he never

set foot

river Ganges,
to the

as

upon.

and likewise passed through

main ocean.

far

as

from Asia

Egyptians

to

the

the

at

all

India

Then he subdued the Scythians

which

Tanais,

where they say he

which

For he both passed over the

lake

Moeotis,

to the nations of Colchis

divides

left

and

Europe

some of his
gave

origin

and, to prove that they

were originally Egyptians, they bring this argument,

that they are

circumcised after the manner of the

Egyptians, which custom continued in this colony

as

it

did amongst the Jews.

he brought

into

his

In the same manner

subjection

all

the

Asia, and most of the islands of Cyclades.

rest

of

Thence

B.C. 1333]

ACCORDING TO DIODORUS SICULUS

passing

over

into

Europe

87

was in danger of

he

losing his whole army, through the difficulty of the

passages, and want

And, therefore,

of provisions.

putting a stop to his expedition in Thrace, up and

down

were

inscribed,

in

Egyptian

glyphics, these words:

and

he erected

in all his conquests,

lord of lords,

Among

those nations that were

pillars

king of kings,

stout

and warlike,

the privy members of

that were cowardly and faint-

the chief and principal

woman

member

conceiving that

man would

of a

evidence to posterity of the courage

clear

every one of them.

own

hiero-

called

letters,

Sesostris,

hearted the secret parts of a

whereon

subdued this country by his arms.

he carved upon those

a man amongst them

be a

pillars,

In some places he

statue, carved in stone,

set

up

of
his

(armed with a bow and

a lance), above four cubits and four hands in height,

of

which

stature

he

Having

himself was.

now

spent nine years in this expedition, (carrying himself

courteously and familiarly towards

all

his subjects

in the meantime), he ordered the nations he had

conquered, to bring their presents

and tributes every

year into Egypt, every one proportionable

to their

several abilities and he himself, with the captives

and

the rest of the spoils,

(of

which there were a

vast quantity), returned into Egypt, far surpassing

all the kings before him in the greatness of his actions

and achievements. He adorned all the temples of

Egypt with

rich

presents,

and

the

spoils

of

his

HISTORY OF SESOSTRIS

88
enemies.
served

Then he rewarded

him

desert.

[B.C. 1333

soldiers that

his

had

in the war, everyone according to their

most certain that the army not only

It is

returned loaded with riches, and received the glory

and honour of their approved valour, but the whole

country of Egypt reaped many advantages by this

expedition.

now disbanded

having

Sesostris

his

army, gave leave to his companions in arms, and

fellow victors to take their ease, and enjoy the fruits

of their conquest.

But he

earnest desire of glory,

him

eternal

himself,

fired

with an

and ambitious to leave behind

monuments

memory, made many

of his

fair and stately works, admirable both for their cost

and contrivance,

own immortal

by which he both advanced

praise,

vantages to the Egyptians,

with perfect peace and

security for the time to come.

with

all

what concerned the

the cities

his

and procured unspeakable ad-

of Egypt,

For, beginning

first

gods, he built a temple in

that

to

particular place most adored

god

whom

every

and he employed none

of the Egyptians in his- works, but finished all

the labours of the captives

an

inscription

to

be made upon

of

the

thus

here/

It is reported that

None

captives,

natives

all

the

some of the Babylonian

because they were not able to bear the

having possessed themselves of a

they took

temples

were put to labour

fatigue of the work, rebelled against the

by

and therefore he caused

king

and

fort near the river,

up arms against the Egyptians, and wasted

ACCORDING TO DIODORUS SICULUS

B.C. 1333]

the country thereabouts

a pardon, they chose

and called
country,

it

89

but at length having got

their habitation,

a place for

name of that in their own

Upon the like occasion, they

after the

Babylon.

say, that Troy, situated near the river Nile

called
with

for

many

was

so

Menelaus, when he returned from Ilium

prisoners, arrived

Egypt, where the

in

Trojans deserting the king, seized upon a certain

strong place, and took up arms against the Greeks,

till

they had gained their liberty, and then built a

famous

city after the

name

But

of their own.

not ignorant how Ctesias the Cretan gives a

different account of these cities,

when he

am
far

says, that

some of those that came with Semiramis into Egypt,

called the cities

which they built

of those in their
matter to

yet

it

is

know

own

after

But

country.

the certain truth

it

the names
is

no easy

of these things

necessary to observe the different opinions

concerning them, that the judicious reader

may have

an occasion to inquire, in order to pick out the real

truth.

Sesostris moreover raised

banks of

earth, to

many mounds and

which he removed

that lay low in the plain, that both

might

be

inundation

deep
from

and

safe

of

the

to the

conveying of corn
dize,

river.

dykes from the

Memphis

secure

the

at

He

river,
sea, for

cut

all

all

the cities

man and
time
likewise

along

as

beast

of

the

many
far

as

the ready and quick

and other provisions and merchan-

by short cuts thither, both

for the support of

HISTORY OF SESOSTRIS

90

[B.C. 1333

trade and commerce, and maintenance of peace and

plenty

over the country; and that which was of

all

moment and concern

greatest

of

was, that he

all,

fortified all parts of the country against incursions of

enemies, and made

the

before,

greatest

exposed either

part

of

Egypt lay open and

horsemen to

enter.

of the multitude of canals

drawn

the

or

the

river

entrance

was very

and the country not so easily to be invaded.

difficult,

He

from

along

of access; whereas,

difficult

chariots

for

But now, by reason

all

it

defended, likewise, the east side of

Egypt against

the irruptions of the Syrians and Arabians, with a wall

drawn from Pelusium through the deserts, as far as to
Heliopolis, for the space of a

He

furlongs.

thousand and

five

hundred

caused likewise a ship to be made of

cedar two hundred and fourscore cubits in length,

gilded over with gold on the outside, and with silver

within

and

this he dedicated to the

most adored by the Thebans.

two obelisks

twenty

cubits

description

of

high,

of the

which

on

large

He

marble,

polished

extent

god that was

erected likewise

a hundred

were

and

inscribed

of his empire, the

great value of his revenue, and the number of the

nations by him conquered.

Memphis,

in the temple of

He

placed likewise at

Yulcan his and his

statues, each of one entire

stone,

wifes

thirty cubits

in

height, and those of his sons, twenty cubits high, on

this

occasion.

After

his

return

from

his

great

expedition into Egypt, being at Pelusium, his brother

B.C. 1333]

ACCORDING TO DIODORUS SICULUS

gi

at a feast having invited him, together with his wife

and children, plotted against his

overcome by wine, and gone

life

to rest,

for being all

he caused a great

quantity of dry reeds (long before prepared for the

purpose), to be placed round the kings pavilion in

the night, and set them

all

on

fire

upon which the

flame suddenly mounted aloft; and

little

assistance

the king had either from his servants or lifeguard,

who were

all

overloaden with wine

still

Sesostris with his

upon the gods

hands

lift

upon which

up to heaven, calling

help for his wife and children,

for

rushed through the flames and escaped; and being

thus unexpectedly preserved, he

other of the gods,

Vulcan, as he
delivered.

made

oblations as to

(as is beforesaid), so especially to

by whose favour he was so remarkably

Although Sesostris was eminent

in

many

great and worthy actions, yet the most stately and

magnificent of

nations, who,

was that relating to the princes in

all,

his progresses.

For those kings of the conquered

through

favour

his

still

held their

kingdoms, and such as had received large principali-

ties

of his free gift

presents

appointed,

and

whom

into

Egypt, at

he received with

honour and respect

temple or the

and donation, came with their

tributes

city,

save that
his

all

the

times

the marks of

when he went

custom was to

into the

catise

the

horses to be unharnessed out of his chariot, and in

their room four kings, and other princes to draw
hereby thinking to

make

it

evident to

all,

it;

that there

HISTORY OF SESOSTRIS

92

was none comparable

conquered the

world.

to

him

for

[B.C. 1333

valour,

wbo had

most potent and famous princes in the

This king seems to have excelled

all others,

that ever were eminent for power and greatness, both

as

his warlike achievements, the

to

gifts

and

Egypt.

he

oblations,

and

number

of his

wonderful works

his

in

After he had reigned three-and-thirty years,

fell blind,

and wilfully put an end

to his

own

life

for which he was admired not only by priests, but by

all the rest

of the Egyptians

for that as he

before, manifested the greatness of his

actions, so

now

his end

mind by

had
his

was agreeable (by a voluntary

death), to the glory of his life.

It is interesting to note that
to

Diodorus does not seem

have realized that the tomb of Osymandyas was the

funeral temple of Raineses

and exploits he attributed

II.,

many

whose wars

of

to Sesostris in

accordance

with the form of the legend of Sesostris, which was

current in his time.

Of the tomb
or

Rameses
There

II.,
[i.e.,

of

Osymandyas,

Diodorus, says

i.e.,

User-Maat-Ra,

Thebes], they say, are the wonderful

sepulchres of the ancient kings, which for state and

grandeur, far exceed

at this day.

all

that posterity can attain unto

The Egyptian

priests say that, in their

sacred registers, there are entered seven

and forty of

these sepulchres; but in the reign of Ptolemy Lagus,

there remained only seventeen,

many

of which were

ruined and destroyed when I myself came into these

ACCORDING TO DIODORUS SICULUS

B.C. 1333]

And

parts, which was in the 108th Olympiad.

things are not only reported
'out

by the Egyptian

of their sacred records, but

many

93
these

priests,

of the Grecians

.who travelled to Thebes in the time of Ptolemy Lagus,

whom was

and wrote histories of Egypt, (among

Hecateus), agree with what

we have

Jupiter were buried), that of king

ten furlongs in circuit
say,

related.

Of the

women

(wherein they say the

sepulchres,

first

at the entrance of

which they

was a portico of various-coloured marble,

length 200

and in height

feet;

five

of

Osymandyas was
in

and forty cubits;

thence going forward, you come into a four-square

stone gallery, every square being 400 feet, supported,
instead of pillars, with

beasts,

stone,

carved

16

manner.

high,

cubits

The

the

after

roof was entirely of stone

eight cubits broad,

with stars.

each of one entire

antique

each stone

with an azure sky, bespangled

Passing out of this peristylion, you enter

much

into another portico,

curiously carved,

like the former, but

and with more variety.

more

At the

entrance stand three statues, each of one entire stone,

the workmanship of
these,

made

Memnon

of Sienitas.

One

of

in a sitting posture, is the greatest in all

Egypt, the measure of his foot exceeding seven cubits

the other two, much

but to his knees

less

than the former, reaching

the one standing on the right, and

the other on the left, being his daughter

This piece

but admirable

is

not only commendable for

for

its

cut

and mother.

its greatness,.

and workmanship, and

HISTORY OF SESOSTRIS

94

excellency of the stone.

In so great a work there

not to be discerned the least flaw, or

Upon

it

there

king of kings

is this
;

works.

inscription

is

any other blemish.

am Osymandyas,

any would would know how great.I

if

am, and where I

[B.C. 1333

lie, let

him

excel

me

in

any of

There was likewise at this second

another statue of his mother, by

stone, twenty cubits in height

gate,

of

herself,

my
one

upon her head were

placed three crowns, to denote she was both the

3
daughter,
wife, and

mother of a king.

portico, they say there

more remarkable

Near

to this

was another gallery or Piazzo,

than the former, in which were

various sculptures, representing his wars with the

Bactrians,

who had

he marched with 400,000

said)

(it is

horse

revolted from him, against

foot,

whom

and 20,000

which army he divided into four bodies, 1

and appointed his sons generals of the whole.

the

first

In

wall might be seen the king assaulting a

bulwark, environed with the

river, 2

and fighting at

the head of his men against some that

against him, assisted by. a

lion, in a terrible

make up
manner;

which some affirm, is to be taken for a true and real

lion,

with

ever

which the king bred up tame, which went along

him

in all his wars,

put the enemy to

See above,

and by his great strength

flight.

Others make this

p. 38.

The city of Kadesh is here referred to.

3 He
was a real lion, and his name was Smam-khefti-f,
Slayer of his foes a picture of him is given on page 27.
2

i.e.,

ACCORDING TO DIODORUS SICULUS

B.C. 1333]

construction

of

that the

it,

trumpet forth

his

bravery of his

own

lion.

own

man

of

was willing

to

king being a

extraordinary courage and strength, he

setting

praises,

95

forth

the

by the representation of a

spirit,

In the second wall, was carved the captives

dragged

members

came

which was

were of effeminate
they

represented without hands

after the king,

and privy

to fight.

The

to signify, that they

and had no hands when

spirits,

third wall represented all

sorts of sculptures, and curious images, in which were

set forth the kings

sacrificing

triumphs in that war.

of

oxen,

and

his

In the middle of the peristy-

lion, open to the air at the top, was reared an altar of

shining marble, of excellent

largeness to be admired.

workmanship, and for

I 11 the last wall were two

statues,

each of one entire stone, 27 cubits high

near

which

to

three

passages opened out at the

peristylion, into a stately

room supported with

like to a theatre for music

was 200

feet

square.

In

pillars

every side of the theatre

there

this,

were many

statues of wood, representing the pleaders and spec tators, looking

Of

walls.

upon the judges that gave judgment.

these, there were thirty carved

upon one of the

In the middle sat the chief justice, with the

image of truth hanging about his neck, with his eyes

closed, having

many books

signified that a judge

but

ought only

cause.

lying before him.

ought not

to take

to regard the truth

any

This
bribes,

and merits of the

Next adjoining, was a gallery

full

of divers

HISTORY OF SESOSTRIS

96

apartments, in

which were

ready dressed np.

of delicate meats,

all sorts

Near hereunto,

king hirnself, curiously carved,

[B.C. 1333

is

represented the

and painted in glorious

colours, offering gold and silver to the gods

as

much

as he yearly received out of the gold and silver mines.

The sum was there

silver) to

hereunto

inscribed (according to the rate of

amount unto 32,000,000

was the sacred

these words, viz.:

library,

of minas.

Next

whereon was inscribed

The cure of the mind.

Adjoining

to this, were the images of all the gods of Egypt, to

whom

every one of

the king was making offerings,

peculiarly belonging to each of them, that Osiris, and

all his associates,

understand

his

righteousness

who were

placed at his

piety towards

the

Next

towards men.

feet,

gods,
to

might

and his

the library,

was a stately room, wherein were twenty beds to eat

upon, richly adorned; in this house were the images

of Jupiter and Juno, together with the kings; and

here

is

it

Round

supposed, the kings body

the room are

be seen

many

lies

interred.

apartments, wherein are to

in curious painting, all the beasts that are

accounted sacred in Egypt.

to the top of the whole

Thence are the ascents

monument

of the sepulchre,

which being mounted, appears a border

the tomb, 365 cubits in compass,

within the division of every

of gold round

and a cubit thick

cubit,

were the several

days of the year engraven, with the natural rising

and

setting

of the

stars,

and their

significations,

according to the observations of the Egyptian astro-

REIGN OF MENEPHTHAH

B.C. 1300]

This border, they say, was carried away by

logers.

97

and

Cambyses

the

when

Persians,

be conquered

In this manner they describe the sepulchre

Egypt.

of king Osymandyas, which seems far to exceed all

others, both for magnificence and curiosity of work(Booths Translation, p. 52

manship.

(Mil?]
of the Sun,

mer-en-Amen, son

ff.)

Ba- ri -

Mer-en-Ptah hetep-

her-Maat.

Mer-en-Ptah
five<l>dk,

or

Menephthah,

A/jl-

was the thirteenth son of Rameses

and his mother was Queen Ast-nefert

II.,

he had been associated with his father in

the rule of the kingdom for several years

became the

before he

and

it

sole

king of Egypt,

he was a man well

when he ascended the
Besides the Horus name, Mighty

is

clear that

past middle age

throne.

Bull, rejoicing in Maat, he styled him-

ka-nekht-hai-e mthe Horus

self

the Soul of Ra, beloved of Amen, he

who

resteth on Maat, lord of the shrines

of Nekhebet and Uatchet, the

name

Horus

of

ofMei enPTAH.

^he lord of risings, and he adopted

titles

and

which

to his stablishing

world,

n
I

A/WW\
/wvw\

VOL. V.

adoration of the Sun-god Ra,

refer to his

of good laws

ra

f
_

throughout the

The

prin-

REVOLT OF THE LIBYANS

[B.C. 1300

cipal event in the reign of Mer-en-Ptah, or

Menephthah,

98

was the Libyan war, concerning which a considerable

amount of information
tion at

Karnak

In the

furnished by a long inscrip-

is

1
.

fifth

year of his reign, as we learn from

two inscriptions published by Maspero

Menephthah

heard that a revolt had broken out among the Libyans,

who had gathered together a large number of

from among the Mediterranean peoples, and
king

their

intended

Memphis

in

to

at the time,

and soon

that

He was

Egypt.

invade

allies

after the report of

him he heard that the Libyan

the revolt had reached

king had attacked, all the outlying Egyptian and other

the east of the Delta and conquered them,

to

cities

and that he had crossed the

Egypt and was master of

in

frontier
all

the territory through

which he had passed.

Menephthah

fortify

of Tern,

Annu, the town

and was actually

at once

began to

i.e.,

Heliopolis, and the fortress city of the god Tanen,

/wwv\
/wwv\

Memphis, and the

i.e.,

Baire-Ast,

modern

which was

ToIYT

AAAAAA

See Mariette, Karnak,

p.

i.

52-55

canal

due

Dtimiclien, Hist. Inschriften

pll. 1-6.

Aegyptisclie Zeitschrift

65

In

AA/W\A

pi.

the

the

-r

AAAAAA

vol.

on

situated
/WW\A

Shakana,

of Per-

probably

Belbes

city

ff.

vol. xix., 1881, p.

118; vol.

xxi., 1883,

REVOLT OF THE LIBYANS

B.C. 1300]

99

course the wretched king of Libya,

called

Mareiui,

ja

the

Tit,

of

invaded the country of the Thehennu,

aa/wv\

M eel

rwi

with his bowmen and his

the

allies

Shaireten, T

oT

\\
AAA

ijM

kelesha, TYjYT

son

\\

'l

fl

^
i

P-1

and the Sha-

and the Qauasha,

and

the

Reku,

(9

and the Turisha,

i,

and then made his way with his wife and children
across the western frontier into the fields of the city of
Pa-art, or Per-art,

CO

which must

not,

according

to

Brugsch, be

with

identified

Prosopis,

bnt with some place to the east of the Delta.

Menephthah saw

made

a long

his foe

he roared

When

like a lion,

speech to his generals and

and

officers,

in

which he reminded them that he was their king, and

would be responsible
on to upbraid them
their inactivity
their

their safety,

for

and then went

for being as timid as birds,

and helplessness.

lands ,were being

laid

He

waste,

and

for

pointed out that

that those

who

chose passed over the frontier whensoever they pleased,

that the invaders robbed the people and seized their
lands,

that

the

Oasis

of

Ta-aljet,

(he.,

REVOLT OF THE LIBYANS

[B.C. 1300

had been occupied, that the

enemy were

100
Farafra),

swarming into Egypt

life,

worms, and their

like

aim in

sole

he declared, was to fight and to plunder, and that

once in Egypt, to which they had come for food to eat,

As

they would settle down .and dwell there.

for their

king he was like a dog, and was a cringing, fawning,

senseless being, 1 and he should never

Then the king ordered

his throne.

more

his

army

sit

upon

to

make

ready to attack the enemy, telling them that

them a

and he promised

would be

to

them

person to battle on

in

shield,

Amen

to lead

14th day of the

the

month.
Before the fateful day, however, the king dreamed
a

dream,

Ptah

and

in

it

appeared to

colossal

him

where he was, reached out

to

him

A.

of

the

god

him

to

Stay

figure

bidding

and,

a divine scimitar,

and ordered him

to

lay aside all faint-heartedness and to be strong, and to

send forward large numbers of soldiers and chariots to

the city of Pa-art.

Mareiui, the king of Libya, had

arranged to fight the battle on the

month Epiphi
so

until

Mariette,

at daybreak, but

two days

Karnak

pi. 53,

later,

1.

23.

when

first

day of the

he was not able to do

the

Egyptian troops

FLIGHT OF THE LIBYAN KING

B.C. 1300]

IOI

enemy was driven

Amen-

attacked with such vigour that the

hither and thither, and by the help of the gods

Ra and

Nubti,

they were overthrown in

thousands by the chariot charges of the Egyptians,

and the dying and dead lay drenched with their own

For

blood.

hours

six

the

Egyptians gave no quarter

raged,

battle

finally the

and the

king of the

Libyans, seeing that the field was covered with the

corpses of his soldiers, took to flight, and in order to

make good

be threw away his bow and

his escape,

quiver, and sandals, and

when he found he was being

pursued he cast away even his clothes, and succeeded

in saving nothing but his skin.

His followers were

not so fortunate, and hundreds of them were cut down

by Pharaohs horsemen.
Mfireiui,

and his

silver,

The

and children of

wife

and gold, and vessels of

iron,

and bows, and even the ornaments and apparel of his

wife were captured by Menephthah, as well as large

numbers
asses,

of

prisoners.

The

and the king ordered

together with

the

was loaded upon

spoil
it

to be driven to

Egypt,

hands and other portions of the

dead Libyans which they had cut

Miiller, Proc. Soc. Bibl. Arclx., vol. x. p.

147

ff.

off

1
.

Among

the

menephthahs GREAT VICTORY

102
slain

were six of

and children of the

brothers

tlie

Libyan king and 6359

and

officers

[B.C. 1300

soldiers

these

all

were mutilated in the manner in which the Egyptians

Of the Shakaresha

treated their uncircumcised foes.

250 were

Turisha 790, but the numbers

killed, of the

who were

of the other allies

killed are

unknown; 9376

twelve women, were taken,

prisoners, including

Masha

the loot consisted of 9111 swords of the

M^

M^

kinds which had

of various

Libyans, 126 horses,

and
tribe,

120 314 wea P ns

>

found with

been

the

Thus, fortunately for Egypt,

etc.

ended the Libyan war, and Menephthah was, no doubt,

very thankful that he was the victor, for Egypt was

never so nearly being conquered from one end to the

other as she was at this time.

When we

consider that two generations of Egyptians

had never seen or heard of war in their own time,

it

is little

short of marvellous that this mighty con-

federation of Libyans and their allies was vanquished

by

army

Menephthahs

because

they

battle on the result of

as the loss of

peoples

it

whom

unclean.

There

rejoiced

madly,

is

or

soldiers

were

they

fought

well

fighting

which depended their freedom,

would
they

his

that

realized

entail a life

held

to

be

of slavery

with

abominable

and

small wonder that the whole land

that

the

Delta was

filled

with

songs of gladness and thankfulness from east to west.

Fortunately for

Menephthah

the

Palestinian

tribes

MENEPHTHAHS HYMN OF VICTORY

B.C. 1300]

were quiet, and from the Kheta he had nought to

because

IO 3
fear,

during the famine which had broken out in

Northern Syria in the early years of his reign he had

To

sent corn to his fathers ally, the prince of Kheta.

commemorate

his

victory in

the Libyan war, Mene-

phthah caused a hymn of triumph

to be inscribed

on the back of a huge granite stele of the time of

Amen-hetep
at

III.,

which was found in the Ramesseum

Thebes in 1896, 1 and in this text we find the principal

events of the war treated in a highly poetical manner.

The king

of

Libya

is

the divine scimitar to

after

heartily abused, and the gift of

Menephthah

a few remarks on the

is

mentioned, and

happy times which have

once more returned to Egypt through the victory of the

mighty king of Egypt, we

The

princes are cast

find the following passage

down upon the ground, and utter

words of homage, and no one of the people of the Nine

Bows

lifteth

up

his head.

Thehennu,
|

is laid waste.
AAA/VVN

Kheta hath been

AAAA/VN

pacified,

Canaan,

AAAAAA
A
(Jvyj,

hath been seized upon by

calamity of every kind, Ascalon hath been carried

away, Qatchare, A
been captured,

Innuamam,

(^ezer), hath

[Jv]

(Yamnia), Lath been reduced to a state of not being, the

See Petrie in the Contemporary Review for May, 1896. A
German translation by Spiegelberg
will be found in Aegyptische Zeitschrift, vol. xxxiv., 1896, p. Iff.
1

transcript of the text, with a

THE

104

ISIRAARE, OR ISIRAALE

Isiraare, or Isiraale,

[B.C. 1300

<=>
(|

(J

have been ravaged and

tlieir

seed destroyed, Syria,

hath become the widow of Egypt,

and

the

all

lands

together

are

at

peace.

Judging from

this passage it

would seem that Mene-

phthah bad conducted some campaign in Palestine or

Southern Syria, and that as a result the whole of the
country

of

Libya had been

is

and several

reduced to want and misery, but

districts of Palestine

there

laid waste,

no reference

to

inscriptions except this.

any such campaign in the

In the time of Rameses

made with the king

the treaty wdiich he

of

II.,

Kheta

allowed him to have full authority over Palestine as

far

north as the

Dog

River, and all the land which lay

was the property of Egypt.

to the south of it

Why

then boast of having reduced to misery towns like

Ascalon, and Gezer, and

Yarnnia, etc.?

M. Naville

has discussed the passage in a careful article, and translates

the last part of

it

thus

1
:

Kanaan

est

done

reduit a limpuissance, parce qu Askalon et Ghezer se

font la guerre

Iamnia

Israel est detruit,

est

comme

les

il

est

comme

nexistant plus

veuves dEgypte.

M. Naville renders, Israel

is

The passage which

destroyed, and hath no

posterity, is translated Israel ist verwiistet

1

na plus de posterite, et la Syrie

Recueil , tom. xx. p. 36.

und

seine

THE

B.C. 1300]

ISIRAARE, OR ISIRAALE

105

Saaten vernichtet, by Prof. Spiegelberg, 1 and Israel

ist

obne

verwustet,

Tims

by

Feldfrucht,

three scholars agree in rendering the hiero-

all

'

// <=>

name

glyphic

1)1)

Israel/ and

under consideration

mentioned, but they

is

>

<

{]

by

translates

Saaten,

frucht, ^

i.e.,

by

posterity,

crops,

and

or fruit of the field.

of

the

meaning

the

M. Naville

by
j

of

Israel

in

which they assign to the word peru

inscription

the

differ

certain that in the

are

Menephthah
Bible

Krall. 2

Prof.

<=>

which

and Spiegelberg

by

Krall

Some

Feld-

writers have

seen in the Egyptian text a reference to the passage in

Exodus

i.

16,

the

ordered

where we are told that the king of Egypt

Hebrew midwives to destroy the male

children of the Hebrews, and to keep alive the female

children

but we are also told in the following verse

that the midwives feared God, and did not as the

king of

Egypt commanded them, but saved the men

children

alive.

narrative

we must

So

destruction

all,

text of

of the

if

we accept the Bible

believe that the male children were

not destroyed after

the Egyptian

that

and therefore the passage in

Menephthah cannot

refer to a

seed of Israel which never took

r

no doubt that the word pern <rz>

.A III
/
does sometimes mean progeny, offspring, and the
There

place.

is

Aegyptische Zeitschrift, vol. xxxiv., 1896, p. 14.

Grundriss, p. 85.

THE

106
like,

ISIRAARE, OR ISIRAALE

[B.C. 1300

but on the other hand the proofs adduced by Prof.

Spiegelberg

make

it

tolerably certain that his rendering

Israel hath been ravaged and his crops destroyed

the correct one

is

We

1
.

Isiraare, or Isiraale,

must now consider the name

which

is

rendered Israel.

It is

word

clear from the determinatives at the end of the

we have

that

name

to deal with the

foreign race, for the sign

and the man

'j

means

and the woman

indicate a large

number

of

of a people of

alien or foreign,

^fj

and the plural sign

men and women.

The

fact that all the other places

mentioned with Isiraale

have the determinative of foreign country

after each of

them emphasizes

of Isiraare or Isiraale,

meaning

tives

this

may

its

placed

omission in the case

which has a group of determina-

foreign people placed after

it

only

indicate that the Isiraare or Isiraale people

had no country, and were nomads, but

in that case

how

did they come to have crops which could be destroyed

The question

of the identification of this people with

the children of Israel seems to depend on what view

is

taken as to the period in which the Exodus happened.

If the
III.,

Exodus took place

in the reign of

Amen-hetep

a matter which will be referred to later on, the

Children of Israel would by the time Menephthah began

to reign

have obtained some position among the tribes

This view is Jso taken by Maspero, who translates the words,

Israilou est rase et na plus de graine. Hist. Anc., tom. ii.
1

p. 436.

THE

B.C. 1300]

ISIRAARE, OR ISIRAALE

107

and Canaan, and they may even have

of Palestine

acquired land in sufficient quantity to justify the king

of

Egypt

in mentioning their

countries

like

name with

Thehennu, Kheta,

the names of

But

etc.

if

the

Exodus took place in the reign of Menephthah the

Isiraare, or Isiraale, cannot be, in the writers opinion,

identified with the children of Israel, because according

Hebrew

to the

for

tradition as preserved in the Bible the

wandered about in the desert

latter

for forty years,

i.e.,

a period which was longer than the whole of the

reign of Menephthah, and they did not effect a settle-

ment

in Palestine until

some time

Moreover, to

later.

Egypt a position among

make them to be worthy of
with those like the Kheta and the

assign to the fugitives from

the nations which would

mention side by side

Thehennu

is

to give

them an importance which they

would never possess in the eyes even of the writer of

a high-flown composition, such as that which appears

on the

stele

usurped by Menephthah.

The composiwe may see

tion has no real historical importance, as

from the

fact that the writer of the text, after declaring

that the Libyans were destroyed, goes on to say that

the Kheta have been brought to a state of peace

who was ignorant

of the

true history of the period would imagine that

Mene-

the reader of this statement

phthah had reduced the Kheta, but we know that he

did not, and that the peoples of the
forced

Rameses

Kheta country had

II. to be at peace with them.

the last words on the stele

we

read, Syria hath

Among
become

108 BOASTED CONQUESTS OF

as the

MENEPHTHAH

[B.C. 1300

widows of Egypt, by which we should expect

the writer to

mean us

understand that Syria had

to

been reduced to a state of misery of the most abject

when we

notice that he is making a

on the words Khar, Syria, and hhart, widows,

character, but

natural to doubt
at

all.

'

if

The pun

pun
it is

the words have really that meaning

probably an old one, and dates

is

from the early part of the XVIIIth Dynasty, and the

writer was clearly more anxious to use

mere historical fact.

Finally,

it

than to report a

that can be said for the

all

identification of thelsiraare, or Isiraale, with the children

of Israel is the resemblance between the two names, and

if it

be accepted we must admit that the Israelites

Egypt

before the reign of

Menephthah, and were

in Palestine at the time his inscription

The building operations

have

of

left

settled

was written.

Menephthah appear

been considerable, especially in the Delta,

to

where

he repaired the old frontier fortresses and built new

ones,

upon

no doubt with the idea of keeping

the

various

from Egypt.

He

peoples
built

who went

largely

at

strict

in

Tanis,

watch

and

out

where he

usurped a number of Xllth Dynasty statues, and two

so-called

Hyksos

sphinxes,

repairs at Heliopolis,

name

is

etc.,

and he carried on

Memphis, and Abydos, and his

found upon many buildings on both banks of

the Nile at Thebes, where

out by his commands.

He

sphinxes, an obelisk,

etc.,

Amen-hetep

III.

many works were

carried

usurped some of the granite

which had been

and Thothmes

III.,

and as

set

up by

far as can

B.C. 1300]

MENEPHTHAH's BUILDING OPERATIONS. log

be made out bis own buildings were few and of no

great importance.

Stelae, in

which he

adoring the gods, are found at Gebel

name appears

is

Menephthah

quarry works in the Sinaitic Peninsula.

built himself a

tomb

It consists

Tombs

in the Valley of the

is

and his

Silsila,

and in the old

at Pselchis in Nubia,

kings at Thebes, which

represented

known to-day

as

of the

No. 8.

of three chambers and three corridors, the

walls of which are decorated with extracts from the

Book

of Praising

Ba and

Book

the

of the Under-

world, or as Dr. Birch read the title some fifty years

ago,

The Book

and with scenes in

of the Gate,

which the deceased

represented in the act of adoring

is

Harmachis and other gods, and that of the passage of

the sun through

certain

The

hours of the night.

kings sarcophagus stands in the second

room from the

end of the corridors, but there

mummy

Some

years

ago

it

is

no

was the fashion

absence of the kings

mummy

to

it.

explain the

by a reference

Bible narrative (Exodus, chapters xiv. and

to

in

to

the

xv.),

and

assume that Menephthah was drowned, together

with his captains, during his pursuit of the children of

Israel through the waters of the

tradition

as

Bed

given in Exodus only

Sea.

tells

us,

But the

Moses

stretched forth his hand over the sea, and the sea
returned

and

to*

his strength

the Egyptians

when

the morning appeared

fled against

it;

and the Lord

overthrew the Egyptians in the midst of the

And

sea.

the water returned, and covered the chariots,

MUMMY

IIO DISCOVERY OF MENEPHTHAHS

[B.C. 1300

and the horsemen, and all the host of Pharaoh that

came into the sea after them; there remained not so

much

them

as one of

There

(vv. 27, 28).

in this passage to indicate that

nothing

is

Pharaoh was pursuing

the Israelites in person, or that he was drowned as a

result.

When

the

mummies

haul of Royal

great

made

at
Der al-Bahari in 1881, and the
Menephthah was found not to be among
them, the belief that he had been drowned with

was

mummy
his

six

of

hundred

chosen

captains

of

confirmed in the opinion of many.

was

chariots

remem-

It will be

bered that early in 1898 M. Loret reported the discovery of the tombs of Amen-hetep

and that in the tomb of the former

at Thebes,

III.

and Thothmes

II.

king a number of royal mummies were found.

in the year

M. Loret read

a paper in Cairo at the

Institut Egyptien on his discovery,

identifications of the

mummies were
,

Rameses

IV.,

him

III., Seti II.,

Rameses

to be those of

V., -and

mummy

the

Thothmes

Amen-hetep IV., Sa-Ptah,

Rameses VI.

covery was an important one, but

thing to find the

and dealt with the

mummies which he had found

declared by

IV. Amen-hetep

Later

it

The

dis-

was a remarkable

of the heretic king Khu-en-

Aten carefully stowed away with the mummies of his

orthodox father and grandfather and descendants,
of

whom

worshipped and adored the

he scoffed at and abominated; in fact

credible that the priests of

Amen

all

god Amen, whom

it

was hardly,

should have taken

the pains to save the body of their old

enemy from the

MUMMY

DISCOVERY OF MENEPHTHAHS

B.C. 1300]

mummies and

wreckers of

Soon

the robbers of tombs.

paper an examination of the

after the reading of the

hieratic characters

III

which were supposed

the name of Khu-en-Aten was.

to represent

made by Mr. W.

Groff,

and he became convinced that they had been misread

by M. Loret, who, instead of transcribing them by

AAAAAA

AAAAAA

^o^

AAAAAA

^ ranscr

^iac^

e(^

them by

In other words, he had,

according to Mr. Groff, read Khu-en-Aten instead of

mummy of Amenmummy of Menephthah.

Ba-en-Ba, and had identified as the

hetep IV., or Khu-en-Aten, the

The views
February

of Mr.

Groff provoked discussion, and on

1900,

10,

MM.

Maspero,

Daressy,

and

Brugsch Bey specially examined the writing on the

mummy

wrappings of the

with the view of deciding

so important a matter; later they were joined

Lieblein,

von Bissing, Lange, and

came

savants

was not that

the

to

conclusion

others,

that

Egypt who has been

Exodus V

fact,

styled generally the

Thanks

MM.

mummy
i.e.,

and brother of

II.,

the famous magician Kha-em-Uast, in

Bey

the

Khu-en-Aten but of Ba-en-Ba,

of

Menephthah, the son of Bameses

of the

by

and these

the king of

Pharaoh

to the courtesy of

Brugsch

the writer also was allowed in January, 1900, to

examine the writing on the wrappings of the

and he has no doubt that Mr. Groff

M. Loret
1

is

is

mummy,

right and that

wrong.

See Becueil, tom. xx.

p.

224

tom.

xxii. p. 136.

H2

CHAPTER

II.

THE EXODUS OF THE ISRAELITES FROM EGYPT.

In connexion with the reign of Meneplithah must be
mentioned the great Exodus o Israel from Egypt,
because

many

of the greatest Egyptologists think that

this remarkable event in the history of the

Of the

took place at this period.

Israelites

Hebrews
and their

Exodus from Egypt we have, besides the narrative

in

the Bible, several short accounts by various writers, 1

and a longer, more detailed statement on the subject

by Josephus.

Egypt

called

According to this

last writer a

Amenophis was desirous

king of

of beholding the

gods, 3 as Orus, one of his predecessors in the kingdom,

had seen them.

priest of the

son of Papis,

And he communicated

same name

as. himself,

who seemed

nature, both in his

to

his desire to a

Amenophis, the

partake of the divine

wisdom and knowledge

of futurity

and Amenophis returned him answer, that

his

power to behold the gods,

if

it

was in

he would cleanse the

They will be found collected in Cory, Ancient Fragments,

London, 1832, p. 183.
2
I quote from Cory, op. cit., p. 176.
1

JOSEPHUS ON THE EXODUS

II3

whole country of the lepers and other unclean persons

abounded in

that

it.

Well pleased with

formation, the king gathered together out of

this

in-

Egypt

all

that laboured under any defect in body, to the

of 80 000 and sent
,

them

amount

quarries which are

to the

situated on the east side of the Nile, that they might

work

in

them and be separated from the

And

Egyptians.

there were

rest of the

among them some learned

who were affected with leprosy. And Amenophis,

wise man and prophet, fearful lest the vengeance of

priests

the

the gods should

if it

fall

both on himself and on the king,

should appear that violence had been offered them,

added this also in a prophetic

spirit

that certain

people would come to the assistance of these unclean

and would subdue Egypt,

persons,

possession for thirteen years.

and hold

it

in

These tidings, however,

he dared not to communicate to the king, but

left in

writing an account of what should come to pass, and

destroyed

himself,

When

distressed.

quarries
state,

at

which the

king was greatly

those that were sent to work in the

had continued

for

some time in that miserable

the king was petitioned to set apart for their

habitation and protection the city Avaris, which had

been

them

left

vacant by the Shepherds;

their

desire

theology above,

is

now

Typhonian

this

had taken possession of the

according to the

city,

city.

city

and he granted

But when they

and found

it

well

adapted for a revolt, they appointed for themselves a

ruler from

VOL. v.

among the

priests of Heliopolis, one

1

whose

JOSEPHUS ON THE EXODUS

14

name was Osarsiph, and they bound themselves by

oath that they would be obedient.
the

enacted

place,

first

neither worship

the

Osarsiph then, in
that they

this law,

should

nor abstain from any

gods,

of

animals which the Egyptians hold in

those sacred

them

veneration, but sacrifice and slay

all

and that

they should connect themselves with none but such

as were of that confederacy.

When
others

he had made such laws as these, and many

of

a tendency directly in

opposition

to

the

custom of the Egyptians, he gave orders that they

should employ the multitudes of hands in rebuilding
the walls
readiness

then

about the

priests

hold

themselves in

into

his

some

counsels

and

and unclean persons;

others

sent

had been expelled by Tethmosis

of the

them

to

this
first

position

war against

Egypt'.

He

them in

to
also

the

ambassadors

and he informed

of their affairs, and

come up unanimously

place to reinstate

of

Shepherds who

to the city called Jerusalem, to those

them

He

war with Amenophis the king.

for

took

and

city,

his

requested

assistance

in

promised in the

their ancient city

and

country Avaris, and to provide a plentiful maintenance

for their host,

require,

the

and

fight for

them

as occasion

and assured them that he would

country under their dominion.

might

easily reduce

The Shepherds

received this message with the greatest joy, and quickly

mustered to the number of 200,000 men, and came up

to Avaris.

Now Amenophis

the king of Egypt,

when

JOSEPHUS ON THE EXODUS

115

he was informed of their invasion, was in great con,

remembering the prophecy of Amenophis,

sternation,

And he assembled

the son of Papis.

the armies of the

Egyptians, and having consulted with the leaders, he

commanded the sacred animals

especially

those which were

to be

brought to him,

held in more particular

veneration in the temples, and he forthwith charged

the priests to conceal the images of their gods with

the utmost care.

who was

Moreover, he placed his son Sethos,

Eamesses from his father Rampses,

also called

being then but

five

years old, under the protection of

a faithful adherent; and marched with the rest of the

Egyptians, being 300,000 warriors, against the enemy

who advanced

to

them, thinking

it

gods, but returned,

meet him; but he did not attack

would be

to

wage war against the

and came again

to

Memphis, where

he took Apis and the other sacred animals he had sent

for,

his

and retreated immediately into Ethiopia with

army, and

for the

all

all

the multitude of the Egyptians

king of Ethiopia was under obligations to him.

He was

therefore kindly received

took care of

all

the

by the king, who

multitude that was with him,

while the country supplied what was necessary for

their subsistence.

He

also

villages during his exile,

its

allotted to

which was

him

cities

to continue

and

from

beginning during the predestined thirteen years.

Moreover, he pitched a camp for an Ethiopian army

upon the borders of Egypt as a protection

Amenophis.

to

king

JOSEPHUS ON THE EXODUS

Il6

In the meantime,

was

such

while

the

things in Ethiopia, the people of Jerusalem,

come clown with the unclean

who witnessed

those

their joint

such

that

barbarity,

impieties

their

folk of the Egyptians,

with

inhabitants

the

treated

of

state

who had

that

believed

sway was more execrable than that which

the Shepherds had formerly exercised alone.

not only set

fire

to the cities

mitted every kind

of

and

sacrilege,

Eor they
com-

villages, but

and

destroyed the

images of the gods, and roasted and fed upon those

sacred

animals that were worshipped

compelled the priests and prophets to

and having

kill

and

sacrifice

them, they cast them naked out of the country.

who ordained

said also that the priest,

was

laws,

Osarsipli

by birth

of

Heliopolis,

was derived from

Osiris, the

It is

their polity and

and

his

name

god of Heliopolis

but that when he went over to these people his name

was changed, and he was

The

above

story

historical value, for

called

reported

it is

Moyses

1
.

by Josephus

has

ledge of the facts of Egyptian history.

It represents

that the famous architect and sage Amen-hetep,

is

a historical personage, and

reign

of

Amen-hetep

no

based upon an imperfect know-

III.,

who

who

flourished in the

told the king that if he

wished to see the gods he must expel the lepers

from the country; whether these men were actually

lepers, or

them

whether the word

employed to describe

is

as a term of abuse, cannot be said.

1

Josephus, Apion,

i.

26.

The king

THE SHEPHERDS
collected these lepers, 80,000

them

to

II

number, and sent

in

[of Tura?], but later

work in the quarries

gave them the city of Avaris to dwell

who changed

siph to Moses, their ruler,

invited the Shepherds

it

he

had

There they made a

been evacuated by the Shepherds.

priest of Heliopolis,

in, for

his

name from Osar-

and they next sent and

who were

living in Jerusalem to

them

in return

the city Avaris which they had formerly

occupied.

come and help them, promising

to give

The Shepherds came, 200,000 in number, and though

Amenophis collected an army of 800,000 men to fight
them, he did not do

Memphis he

so,

but taking his gods from

retreated to Ethiopia, where he remained

for thirteen years, whilst strangers ruled the country

Now we

according to the words of the Egyptian sage.

know enough

of the history of the reign of

hetep III. to be able to

assert

Amen-

that no invasion

Egypt by the Shepherds, 200,000

strong,

of

ever took

place in his reign, and that this king did not retreat to

Ethiopia for thirteen years, and that the city of Avaris

had been

in

the hands of the Egyptians since the

beginning of the XYIIIth Dynasty.

Manetho, from

whom

copyist

Josephus says he takes the

of

story,

having very possibly access to some Egyptian tradition

of the

Exodus

of the Israelites,

which ascribed

it

to the

reign of Mehephthah, erroneously confused his

name

(A)menephthes with the better known Amen-hetep III.

Thus the theory which would place the Exodus in the
time of Amen-hetep III.

falls

to the ground.

More-

THE EXODUS

Il8

IN

THE

XVIIth

over, the details of the story reported

DYNASTY
by Josephus do

not agree with the details of the Bible narrative, and

that Manetho

is clear

writer of the

Book

is

of

it

describing one event, while the

Exodus

is

describing another.

Elsewhere Josephus himself connects the expulsion of

the Hyksos by the Egyptians with the Exodus of the
Israelites,

but here also his remarks are equally with-

out historical value, for he assumes that the Hyksos

were the ancestors of the Hebrews, and with characteristic

that

boastfulness attempts to

among

Hyksos kings

of

his readers believe

Egypt who, according

which he professes
reigned

history,

make

the ancestors of the Hebrews were

to quote verbatim

over

from Manethos

country for

that

the

to the passage

about

five

from

the

hundred and eleven years.

An

examination

of

the

facts

derived

Egyptian monuments shows that a vast number of

people, probably Semites, were expelled from the Delta
at the

close

of the

XVIIth Dynasty, and

that the

process of the expulsion went on vigorously under the

reigns of the

Dynasty

first

three or four kings of the

XVIIIth

thus there must have been on several occa-

sions an exodus of Semites, or at least of Canaanites,

from Egypt.

Of

this great series of forced emigrations

among the Canaanitish

when the Hebrews had occupied

traditions no doubt remained

tribes of Palestine and,

the country, were very possibly, in the process of time,

incorporated by the

Hebrew annalists in their account

own ancestors from Egypt.

of the emigration of their

HYKSOS CONFOUNDED WITH THE ISRAELITES Iig

Of

this earlier stratum of the Biblical narrative traces

may

This theory

yet be identified.

is

rendered more

probable by the fact that the Egyptians undoubtedly

identified the Israelitish

the Hyksos

Exodus with the expulsion of

when

the Egyptian history of Manetho,

appealed to by Josephus for information from Egyptian

Exodus

sources concerning the

only

tell

him

of the Israelites, can

Exodus of the Hyksos, confused

of an exodus of foreigners which

of the

with a later story

took place in the reign of Menephthah,

with Amen-hetep

who

whom

under

III.,

is identified

lived the great

magician Amen-hetep, the son of Pa-Hapu, who appears

We

in the story.

thus see that the Egyptians, accord-

ing to the version of Manetho as quoted by Josephus,

confused the traditions

of

two distinct events

the

Expulsion of the Hyksos, for which they had historical

documents as proof, and which therefore seemed more

important to them, and the Exodus of the Israelites,

which was not mentioned on their monuments, and

which they,
possessed

if

we may

confused legend.

probable that

of the

It

therefore,

is,

Exodus legend

similarly in the

Hebrews we have a

ot

trust the narrative of Josephus,

very

of the

faint reminiscence of the expulsion

Hyksos as well

as

a strange tradition of the

events which accompanied their

own Emigration from

the land of Goshen.

The Egyptian
king,
into

i.e.,

version of the

Amen-hetep

Ethiopia,

under

III.,

whom

name

of the legendary

whom
no such

Osarsiph
event

drove
as

the

AN EGYPTIAN TRADITION OF THE EXODUS

120

Exodus can have taken

place, renders it very probable,

has been seen above, that the Israelitish emigra-

as

Menephthab, whose name

tion really took place under

The

easily confused with Amen-hetep.

was

of an obscure

Egyptian

place

This

supposition

the

discussed

which

From

into the corvee,

certain

amount

i e.,

the

of

who have

Menephthah

have

taken

very

is

is

about

place

after the expulsion

entirely supported

of Exodus,

we gather that the

this

indicated.

views

the

hundred years

Book

Exodus

have been the Pharaoh of the

This view

of the

narrative

and

thus

will

B.c. 1270, about four

of the Hyksos.

to

thus

is

existence

the

Egyptologists

the

of

subject,

commonly considered
Exodus,

with

agrees

number

greater

Menephthab

under

took

that

tradition

as

we

by the

shall see.

Israelites were pressed

they were compelled to perform a

of physical labour in connexion with

the public works which the king of Egypt had ordered

to

be carried out.

Curiously enough the work was

not in connexion with the maintenance of the banks of

the Nile during the period of the inundation of the
river,

but with the erection of some wall or building,

for the

many

to make so
The Egyptians made the lives

gangs of Israelites were compelled

bricks per day.

of the Israelites bitter with hard bondage, in morter,

and in brick, and in

their

all

service

field:

all

serve,

was with rigour

they did

set

manner

of service

in

the

wherein they made them

(Exod.

i.

14).

over them taskmasters to

Therefore
afflict

them

FORCED LABOURS OF THE ISRAELITES

with

their

treasure

they built for Pharaoh

Pithom and Raamses (Exod.

cities,

Finally,

And

burdens.

121

11).

i.

Pharaoh commanded the taskmasters of the

people, and their

Ye

officers, saying,

shall no

more

give the people straw to make brick, as heretofore:

let them go and gather straw for themselves.

And

which they did make hereto-

the tale of the bricks,

fore, ye shall lay upon them; ye shall not diminish

ought thereof

they be idle

for

saying, Let us go, and

therefore they cry,

Let

our God.

to

sacrifice

there more work be laid upon the men, that they

may

labour therein

words.

... So

the

throughout all

and

them not regard vain

let

were

people

abroad

scattered

the land of Egypt to gather stubble

instead of straw.

And

the taskmasters hasted them,

saying, Fulfil your works, your daily tasks, as

there

And

was straw.

the officers of the children of

taskmasters had set over

which. Pharaohs

Israel,

when

them, were beaten, and demanded, Wherefore have

ye not

making brick both

your task in

fulfilled

yesterday and to-day,

as

(Exod.

heretofore?

v.

6-14).

We may
by which

note

in

passing

Hebrew

the

oppressed his countrymen

which
Great

is,

of course, the

House

so

calls

cruelly

the king
is

Egyptian Per-aa

but this was a

by every king of Egypt,

only

the

that

writer

and

title
it

name
who

Pharaoh,

i.e.,
|

which was borne

therefore

enable us to identify the oppressor king.

does not

The custom

THE STORE

122

AND RAAMSES

CITIES PITHOM

of employing foreign captives or aliens was inaugurated

by Thotlimes

who employed them

III.,

largely on the

works connected with the great temple of Amen-Ra

Thebes

the example which he set was followed by his

successors, so

his

at

we cannot

identify the oppressor king

employment of captive or

We

alien labour.

by

touch

firm ground in the statement that the Israelites built

for

Pharaoh treasure

for the

names

Pithom and Raamses,

cities,

of these cities

identified

by M. Naville

The name
(or Per-)
i.e.,

Atemt,

the

situated- in

Thuku
the

at

Pithom

of

house
the

of

Thukut,

eastern

end

Maskhuta.

the

(d

called

to

Tern

or

was

this

the

in

called

of the

7^

or

god

inscriptions

(c)

which lay

^ ,

Wadi Tumilat, and

by the Arabs, Tell

al-

number

of

Here M. Naville found

strong chambers, well built of

considers

have been

sites

of course, the Egyptian Pa-

marked by the ruins

their

with considerable success.

district
g

or

is,

known from the

are well

hieroglyphic inscriptions, and

mud

bricks,

is

which he

have been used for storing grain and

provisions for those

who were about

to

make a journey

into the Arabian desert, or as a stronghold wherein to

keep the tribute which was brought from Syria and

Palestine into

Egypt

until such time as

disposed of in the ordinary manner.

See The Store- city
London, 1885.
1

of

Pithom and the

it

could be

As nothing
Pioute

of the

older

Exodus,

ZOAN, OR TANIS
than the time

Kameses

of

123

has been found at

II.

Pithom we may reasonably assume that he was the

builder

of the

city;

it

that

of course, possible

is,

there was an

older city on the site before his time,

but

it

even

so

who

II.

the

built

has been made known to us by

Thus, as we are told in the Bible that

ruins.

its

Rameses

was

strong city which

the Israelites built Pithom for the Pharaoh

oppression,

and

as

of the

we know from the monuments

dis-

covered by M. Naville that Rameses built Pithom at

the

<

mouth

frontier

of the

on the east of

city

had

Israelites

corvee

^ J

Goshen in which the

get a tolerably clear idea

who had the

Israelites forced into the

was none other than Rameses

But the Bible

the

i.e.,

we

their abode,

that the Pharaoh

=>

~^

East,

II.

also tells us that the Israelites built the

treasure city of Raamses, and this city can be no other

than Tanis, the Zoan of the Bible, the San of Arabic

and the Sekhet Tcha,

writers,

Sekhet Tchant,
of the

[jjj]

hieroglyphic

43,

12,

Egyptian
Tchanet.

name

field

We may

the

Sekhet

exact

of

Zoan
i.e.,

is

xiii.

proved by the fact that

22, that

Hebron was

it

in

Psalm

in

equivalent

Tchanet,

note

the

of

Field

That the Hebrews regarded Zoan

very old city

Numbers

are

or Tchart,

inscriptions.

passing that the words

lxxviii.

or

is

as

of

noted in

built seven years

HISTORY OF TANIS

124
before

Zoan

in

The

Egypt.

city

exceedingly old one, and the monuments

of Pepi

which have been found there prove that

I.

was of

it

and great importance in the Vlth

considerable size

Dynasty, about

was an

of Tanis

The history

3233,

b.c.

of Tanis is a

chequered one, but the great kings of the Xllth and

Xlllth Dynasties

them

set

temple

up

built

largely there, and

many

colossal statues of themselves in the

of

famous

the Hyksos kings established themselves there,

and usurped the sphinxes and other monuments of their

predecessors which they found in the place.

the

first

of the kings of the

was

Seti I.

New Empire who

seems to

have perceived the great strategic importance of the

Egyptians

city to the

if

hold upon Palestine, and

they wished to maintain their

it

was he who brought

it

into

a state of comparative prosperity after a long period of

neglect by the kings of the
associating

it

XVIIIth Dynasty, who,

with the Hyksos kings, would do nothing

whatsoever for

Eameses IP, following the example

it.

of his father Seti

I.,

thought highly of the importance

He

of Tanis, and did a great deal to restore the city.

repaired the old temples and rebuilt parts of them, he

fortified the walls,

strong,

and made every part of

its

defences

and he laid out gardens, and either founded or

re-founded a temple there in honour of the gods Amen,

Ptah, Harmachis, and Sutekli, and, in

capital city.

other

He

made

it

his

usurped large numbers of statues and

monuments which had been

decessors,

fact,

set

up by his

pre-

and by adding new ones of his own here,

THE GREAT WALL OF RAMESES

and everywhere, he made the

there,

of Thebes.

which he

visited Tanis,

city of Ramessu-meri-Amen,

calls the

the city of Rameses

says that there

city almost a rival

Panbasa who had

certain

125

II.

II., in

to a friend

nothing in the Thebaid which can

is

be compared with

home

writing

i.e.,

it.

restorer of the city his

As Rameses

II.

was the great

name became attached

to

it,

and

when the Egyptian spoke ofPa-Ramessu,i.e., the palace

or temple of Rameses, he as often referred to the whole
city as to the kings private residence.

membered that Rameses

to the treaty
it

was from

was

II.

It will be re-

when he agreed

which the king of the Kheta proposed, and

he watched the development

this place that

of events in Palestine
his country.

at Tanis

The

and Syria, and decided

Treasure city

Raamses

to rule

is,

then,

almost beyond doubt, none other than Tanis, or Pa-

Ramessu,

Rameses
cellence,

'7
II.

r
fli

P P

state of misery to

were reduced, and which

is

ill

\ ^ Zl
H

was the builder king of Egypt par

and the

the Bible,

7 (

is

which the

ex-

Israelites

so vividly described

in

exactly the condition to which an alien

people in the Delta would be brought

when turned

into gangs for the corvee of the day.

It

was Rameses

II.

who

Memphis
Egypt the hordes of nomad

built the wall from

to Pelusium to keep out of

Semites, and he certainly carried out some works either

of lengthening or deepening the canal
1

See Goodwin in Records of the Past,

which was intended

vol. yi. p. 11

ff.

JOSEPH, ASENATH AND POTIPHAR

126
to

run eventually from the middle of the Delta to the

Red Sea. In both these undertakings a vast amount of

human labour would be required, and it would be of
that kind which made the lot of the Israelites unbearable.
Thus there seems to be no doubt that the period
of greatest oppression described in the Book of Exodus
fell

in the reign of

Rameses

II.,

and that the works

wherein the Israelites toiled were in connexion with

the rebuilding of the city of Tanis and the founding of
the frontier fortress of Pa-Temu, or Pithom.
see,

We may

however, that although the Biblical account points

to the period of the

the Exodus

XIXth Dynasty

took place,

there

are

as the time
difficulties

which cannot altogether be explained away.

opening verses of the
told that Joseph died,

first

and

generation, and that a

Joseph and who

when
in

it

In the

chapter of Exodus we are

all

his brethren, and all his

new king

who knew not

we are clearly

arose

oppressed Israel;

intended to understand that the oppression and the

But we learn
that the Pharaoh who raised

Exodus took place

after Josephs death.

from Genesis

45,

xli.

Joseph to a high position of trust in his kingdom

called

him Zaphnath-paaneah, and gave him

to wife

Asenath, the daughter of Potipherah, priest of On.

Now

the

name Zaphnath-Paaneah

equivalent of the Egyptian

n
(1

vj\
1

The god

/vww

'

is,

undoubtedly, the

^ ^ jk

ii

Tchet-pa-neter-auf-ankh,

i.e.,

Joseph) came into

life,

spake, and he

(i.e.,

THE DATE OF THE EXODUS

12 7

which, owing to the dropping of the letters

quick

pronunciation became

This name, however,

inscriptions,

though

clearly imitated from

is

which are composed in this manner,

Amen

x=x

Pe-ta-pa-Ra,

i.e.,

belonging to Neith,

undoubtedly

the

gift

to classes of

life,

probably the Egyptian

of Ra.

names

But

of the

all

these

XXIInd and

Dynasties, 1 and are not found earlier in the

inscriptions,

and we must therefore assign the

verses of the

much

is

i.e.,

names belong

XXYIth

is

Nes-Net,

and Potipherah

Tchet-

life,

spake and he came into

The name Asenath

etc.

names

Tchet-Ptah-

e.g.,

auf-ankh, Ptah spake and he came into

Amen-auf-ankh,

r in

not found in the Egyptian

is

it

and

Tche-pa-nete-auf-ankh.

Book

of

Exodus and Genesis

later period than the story of the

first

xli.

few

45 to a

Exodus given

in the Bible.

The date of Exodus and the line of the route which

was followed by the Children of Israel on their departure from Egypt have given rise to endless discussions
and

theories^

difficulties

none of which, however, explain away the

of the Bible narrative.

said that the

Exodus took

We

have already

place about b.c. 1270, but

other dates which have been proposed for

it

are b.c.

1314 and B.c. 1335, the former by Lepsius, and the

latter
1

41,.

by Dr. Mahler, who declares that

See Steindorff, Aegyptische Zeitschrift,

42.

vol.

it

took place

xxvii.,

1889, pp.

THE ROUTE OF THE ISRAELITES

128

on Thursday the 27th of March, b.c. 1335.

Of Dr.
Mahlers date, Prof. Marti says, Mahler assigns the

Exodus

27th March, 1335

to the

Thursday,

b.c.,

there occurred a central solar eclipse.

tion rests on

which was a

because fourteen days before

day

that

This calcula-

Talmudic data that assign the darkness

mentioned in Ex. 10.

21, to the 1st of Nisan,

and

explain that that day, and therefore also the 15th of

In Ex. 10. 22, indeed, we

Nisan, was a Thursday.

read of a darkness of three days

but Mahler argues

that this note of duration really belongs not

but to v.

23,

and

is

meant simply

to

to v. 22,

explain

how

intense and terrifying was the impression which the

darkness produced on the inhabitants of Egypt

....

so that no one dared for three days to leave his house.

It

is

just as arbitary to assume in Gen. 15. 5

ff.

an

eclipse enabling

Abraham

sunset,

and then

to use the eclipse for fixing the date

of the

covenant.

living in Goshen,

the

i.e.,

The

to count the stars before

Israelites,

we know, were

in a portion of the Delta and of

Wadi Tumilat which

lies

between Zakazik on the

north, Belbes, probably the. ancient Pharbaethus, on

the south, and the modern Tell al-Kebir on the east,

and we know that they

along the

set out

Wadi Tumilat.

on their way eastwards

Two ways were open

to

them, one went by way of Tan is and then led to the

Mediterranean and thence to Syria, and the

other

going eastwards passed through the district of Rameses,

1

Art. Chronology, in Ency. Bibl.,

i.

col. 785.

SUCCOTH, PITHOM, PI-HAHIROTH

129

and so reached the northern end of the Red

which

it

is

Sea,

supposed then extended nearly as far as

the modern town of Ismailiya.

Many Egyptologists and theologians think that havingreached Succoth, which district has been by some identified

with the Thukut,

texts,

and

its capital city

Pa-Temu,

of the hieroglyphic

or Pithom, they

went

on into the desert of Etham, and then turned towards the

south, whilst others are convinced that they

must have

gone to the north. The former view agrees with the Bible
narrative which records the divine

Moses that the Children of

command given

Israel should turn

to

and

encamp before Pi-hahiroth, between Migdol and the

sea,

over against Baal-zephon (Exod. xiv.

however, impossible to identify the

places with certainty, although there

at the time

frontier

It

2).

is,

sites of these three

is

no doubt that

when the Bible narrative was written these

Assum-

towns or fortresses were well known.

ing that the Israelites turned towards the south they

might have crossed over into the desert at a place

to

the south of the Bitter Lakes, or at a place more to

the

north and between the Bitter Lakes and Lake

Timsah; another view

Sea a

is

that

they crossed the

the north of the modern town of

little to

Red

Suwez

or Suez.

The
the

boldest theory ever put forward on the route of

Exodus

is

Israelites start

VOL. V.

that

of

Brugsch who, making the

from Groshen, leads them by way of Tanis

ETHAM AND MIGDOL

130

through the

field of

^Q @

Egyptian Khetem,

Etham

to a fortress, called

Zoan

which he

they then journey past

with

identifies

Migdol,

in

the

i.e.,

Migdol near Pelusium, and make their way by some

road near the great Sirbonian

Bog

past Pi-hahiroth,

which Brugsch here regards as the equivalent of the

gulfs or pits

ra fidpadpa) of the Sirbonian Bog.

The route here sketched

in

common

pretty well that which was

is

use by travellers from Egypt to Syria and

vice versa but the Israelites were specially

,

commanded

not to use that road, the obvious reason being that the

marched straight into the

fugitives would have

fortresses

which the Egyptians maintained along their

eastern and north-eastern frontiers, which

object

Etham

P
not

line of

to
is

Moreover,

avoid.

the
i- e -j

know which

it

equivalent
fortress,

of

Egyptian

if it

fortress is referred to

or strong place,

and which
"jj

(j

not which Migdol

is

also

did,

and in

known

like

means fortress

the equivalent of the

is

>

indicated, for there

was more

than one Migdol both in Egypt and in Syria.

together, the

word

we do

n mdMhare, we know

<

was their

Egyptian

the

and even

manner with Migdol, which

it

does not follow that

facts

Taken

about the land of Goshen and

the land of Bameses indicate that the passage of the

Red Sea was

portion of

not

made

Lake Menzaleh

either as far north as

any

or as far south as Suez,

and

that whatever water was crossed by them, be

it

lake or

LAKE TIMSAH THE SEA OF REEDS

be

it

sea,

was situated

part

eastern

of

at

131

no great distance from the

Wadi Tiunilat. There is no

the Red Sea and the Mediter-

the

evidence to show that

ranean Sea were connected by means of a series of lakes,

when

or swamps, or lagoons,
it is

far

more reasonable

Exodus took

the

to believe that the Israelites

through some part of Lake Timsah, which

quite close to the eastern end of the

is

relatively

Wadi

Tumilat,

than by a passage through the Red Sea

Book

of

the Israelites crossed

reeds/ a

and because

Lake Timsah

i.e.,

The

water which
the sea of

it

is

to

no doubt that they

name because

contained reeds.

it

was of great

This fact points

as the sea of reeds, because being

fed from the Nile reeds

The

calls the

Suph,

and there

called the water -by that

extent,

Exodus

Yam

itself.

name which they would never have given

the sea in general

to

and

the desert by means of a passage

crossed over into

narrative of the

place,

would grow

in it in

abundance.

name sea of reeds to the Red

blunder made by later writers who, knowing

application of the

Sea was a

nothing about the geography of the Isthmus of Suez, as

soon as they heard or read that the Israelites had
passed over a vast stretch of water, assumed that that

water was the Red Sea because they knew not of the
existence of an,y other in that part of the world.

Of the

theories put forward in recent years on the

Exodus a few are new, but many

are either modifications

of old ones, or the old ones themselves resuscitated ; both

new and old are, however, usually put forward by men

who have no competent knowledge either of the district

M. navilles

132

proposed route

which they are attempting

to discuss or describe, or of

the conditions under which the events related took place.

argue that the Misraim out of which

It is also futile to

Israel

came

is

not Egypt, hut some country to the east

or north-east of

it,

logical character

which has been collected during the

for all the evidence of

an archaeo-

few years points to the fact that Misraim in the

Exodus narrative means Egypt and Egypt only. The
last

views on the subject of Goshen

and the route of the

Exodus which M. Naville has enunciated during the last
few years are worthy of careful attention, for they are based

on the first-hand knowledge derived from the results of

the excavations which he

made

in the

Wadi

where he was so fortunate as to discover the

of Pithom.

and the

He

identifications of the cities

common

and he has not overstated the

drawn

knowledge

mentioned in the

sense and moderation,

facts

from which he has

In the present state of Egypto-

his deductions.

difficulties

store-city

has treated the subject of the Exodus

Bible narrative with

logical

Tumilat,

is

it

impossible to

settle

the

which beset the Exodus question, but the

present writer,

who has gone

over the routes proposed

both by M. Naville and Sir William Dawson, thinks

that, if the matter is to be considered

standpoint, the only possible

escape quickly into the

across

Lake Timsah

way

Etham

from a practical

for the Israelites to

desert

was by a passage

on their route after they had

crossed he offers no opinion.

1

The Store-city of Pithom and the Route

Goshen, London, 1887.

1885

of the

Pavodus, London,

REIGN OF SETI

B.C. 1266]

MENEPHTHAH

II.,

133

Ra-usr-kheperu-meri-Amen, son

Sun, Seti-

of the

mer-en-Ptah.

The immediate successor

phthah appears

to

of

Mene-

have been Seti

Mer-en-Ptah, and he

II.,

regarded as

is

such by the greater number of Egyptologists,

not

though

definite proofs of it are

forthcoming

M. E. de

Rouge

considered that Amen-meses and Sa-

?A
Ka-nekht-meri-Ra,
the Horus name of

Ptah preceded

Seti II. in the rule of

the kingdom.

Seti II. adopted as his

Horus name

Mighty

Bull, beloved of

Seti II.

Ra,

him

and

several of the titles

predecessors

the

apply to

inscriptions

which had been borne by his

he appears

to

have lived

usually at

Tanis, and to have kept watch over the unruly tribes

on the north-east

frontier,

but although he kept the

Egyptian border fortresses in a state of

efficiency,

he

does not seem to have engaged in any wars with the

peoples

whom

As

builder,

activity.

for his

He

they were intended to keep out of Egypt.

however,

he

exhibited

prenomen, wherein, by the way, he

beloved of

feet, is

is

called

inscribed on a large granite block,

which was found near Matariyeh

1
;

he also usurped the

two granite obelisks which stood in that

1

considerable

carried on certain works at Heliopolis

Maspero, Aegyptische Zeitschrift, 1881,

city,

and are

vol. xix. p. 116.

BUILDINGS OF SETI

134

commonly

[B.G. 1266

II.

called Cleopatras Needles.

At Karnak

lie

built a small sandstone temple in the north-east angle

of the court between the First and Second Pylons

it

contained three sanctuaries, which were dedicated to

Amen-Ra, Mut, and Khensu

walls

are

respectively.

scenes in which the

worshipping these gods.

The Temple

at Luxor.

He

king

is

On

the

represented

appears to have

made

View from the South-west.

From a photograph by A.

Beato, Luxor.

some of the sphinxes which were placed before the

great temple of Amen-hetep III. at Luxor, but

very doubtful

if

he built or repaired

buildings on which he caused his

name

His name occurs on monuments as

Simbel, where

it

is

all

the

it

is

temple

to be inscribed.

far south as

Abu

found on one of the four colossal

statues in front of the temple of

Rameses

II.

Seti II.

TOMB OF SETI

B.C. 1266]

tomb

built for himself a

in the Valley of the

the Kings

of Thebes, wherein,

buried, but

as his

Amen-hetep

II.

135

II.

mummy

in 1898,

at the

sists of three

it

came upon

The tomb con-

Dynasty.

long corridors, two rectangular chambers,

the second having

The

sanctuary.

of

must have been removed

XXth

end of the

of

was found in the tomb

there for safety in the troubled times which

Egypt

Tombs

presumably, he was

in

square pillars, and a

four

it

walls of the corridors and chambers

are decorated with scenes and texts from the

the Praises of Ba, and

the

with scenes representing the

Book

Book

of the Tuat,

of

and

king worshipping the

gods and holding converse with them.

At the end

of

the tomb are two large fragments of the sarcophagus

of Seti II.

the cover was in the form of a cartouche. 1

In the reign of Seti

/WNAAA

AWM

II. the scribe

(S)
1

,
I

either

made

Anna

or

a copy

Annana,
or com-

Two Brothers, 3 which

many discussions and com-

posed the famous Tale of the

has formed the subject of

ments.

The

first

part

For a

first

and the other

full description of the

tomb

not,

who

live

see Champolliou, Notices,

pp. 459-463, and 808.

The other scribes mentioned in the colophon to the papyrus are

tom.
2

the story deals with two

of

brothers, the one married,

i.

For the literature see Maspero, Contes, pp.

translated by E. de Rouge.

3, 4.

The

tale

was

136

THE TALE OF THE TWO BROTHERS

in the

same house, and are engaged in the same occu-

pation,

attempts

The

farming.

i.e.,

to

of the

wife

[B.C. 1266

elder

brother

younger brother when he

seduce the

returns alone one day to the homestead to obtain a

fresh supply of corn, but he resists her and goes back
to his

Meanwhile the wife makes herself

work.

ill,

and when her husband comes home in the evening he

finds no fire

sick

his

lit,

no supper ready, and his wife lying

The husband rushes out

who has been accused by the

and prostrate.
brother,

making a
brother,

violent attack

being

upon

one of the cows, takes to

the furious husband

the younger brother

is

brothers

coming by

and

pursued by

flight,

who wishes

of

the younger

her, but

warned of his

to slay

wife

is

to slay him.

When

almost caught the Sun-god

causes a river to come into being between the pursuer

and the pursued, and the younger man succeeds

making the

elder

believe

mutilates himself.

The

he

that

elder

furious with his wife, and having

The second

reality quite independent of the

concern ourselves about

it

pieces,

is

which he

here.

It

is

in

and we need not

has often been

stated that the story of the younger brother

the wicked wife

to his

part of the story

first,

and

now becomes

gone back

house seizes her and cuts her in

throws to the dogs.

innocent,

is

brother

in

Batau and

nothing more than the story of

Joseph and the wicked wife of Potiphar, but beyond

the fact that the two
of

much

women appear

the same words, there

is

to

have made use

probably no more

THE REIGN OF AMEN-MESES

B.C. 1266]

1 37

connexion between the narrative of the Book of Genesis

and the Egyptian story in a

papyrus, than there

dozens

the

between

it

XIXth Dynasty

and the

women which

stories of

could

however, there was any borrowing at

the part of the

Hebrew

all it

writer or copyist, for, as

was on

we have

already seen, part of the Biblical narrative of Joseph

not older than the

be

from the various literatures of the world.

collected
If,

is

unfaithful

of

late

XXIInd,

or even

tPM]

XXVIth

is

Dynasty.

^ MPM]
C

Ra-men-ma-ra-setep-en-Ra, son of the Sun, Amenmeses-heq-Uast.

Of the circumstances which led

the occupation of the throne of

by Amenmeses nothing

m
1

the details of his

life

to

Egypt

known, and

is

and reign that

have come down to us are very few.

He

adopted as his Horus name, Lord

of festivals, like

Amen, or Mighty

bull, great one of two-fold strength,

stablished like [Ra], 1
NEB-HEBTJ-Mi-AMEIT,
the Horus name of

Amen-meses.

himself the titles

loved of

and he gave

Mighty

lands, lord of the shrines of

Bull, be-

Maat, stablisher of the two

Nekhebet

and Uatchet, mighty one of wonders in the Apts

1

COL

TITLES OF AMEN-MESES

138
in

(i.e.,

Karnak and Luxor).

[B.C. 1250

His mothers name was

who

is

described as divine

J,

mother, royal mother, great lady, and his wife, the

royal spouse, the great one, the lady of the two lands,

was called

^ 35

Baket-ur-nu-re

but whether he obtained

any claim

S?QI

to

the throne

He

through his mother or wife seems very doubtful.

probably usurped the throne in the troubled times

which followed the reign of Menephthah, when, as we

shall

see

control

later,

there

an

In

affairs.

was no central government

inscription

published by Lepsius, 1 he
of

Amen,

of

Amen-meses,

called beautiful god, son

is

divine essence coming forth from his

Amens) members, august child of Hera(?),

for

fair

to

(i.e.

set apart

sovereignty in the North land, and the story

adds that Isis nursed him in the city of Khebit to be

prince.

And

relying

on this statement, M. E. de

Rouge decided that the king was born

city situated in the

Maspero holds a
1

Denkmdler,

iii.

Etude sur une

nome

in Khebit, a

of Aphroditopolis, 3

different' view,

which

is

pi. 201c.

Stele

Egyptienne Paris, 1858,

,

But M.

probably the

p. 185.

TOMB OF AMEN-MESES

B.C. 1250]

these words are not intended to be

correct one, that

taken in a

139

but in a mythological sense, and

literal

that they indicate that the king was not intended from
his birth to ascend the throne, in other words, that he

was not of royal descent.

said of

Thothmes

the great gifts

III.,

of An-mut-f, and

in an inscription

is

relates

which the gods had bestowed upon

and goes on

him,

who

somewhat similar thing

to say

was

emanation

he was

that

like the child

Horus

in Khebit,

Dr. Brugsch argued from these words that the king

had been banished

to the

access, so as to remove

marshy country,

him from the

difficult of

sight of his

faithful subjects and to destroy all remembrance of

him.

But they meant nothing

of the

kind,

and

were merely intended to convey to the reader the fact

that the

powers

king identified himself with Horus, whose

and attributes he assumed

Amen-meses

carried out

some repairs on the temple

Medinet Habu, where his name

Seti

I.

consequence.

in

is

at

found with those of

and Heru-em-heb as a restorer of monuments;

in some places at Thebes he seems to have usurped

buildings, and his
to be.

the

He

Tombs

name appears where

built a

of the

tomb

at

10),

and he and his

in it; the

Mariette, Karnah

Egypt under the Pharaohs,

has no right

Thebes in the Valley of

Kings (No.

mother and wife were buried

it

tomb

pi. 16.

vol.

i.

p. 383.

consists

THE REIGN OF SA-PTAH

140
of three

the

corridors,

chamber opening out

second having

in

and two chambers, the

it,

chamber contains scenes in which his

and the second scenes in which

offerings to the gods,

his wife is

making adoration

of vignettes

XVIIth Chapter

which

of the

Some
found among the

to various deities.

of the pictures on the walls are also

series

The first
mother is making

square pillars.

four

it

which has a small

of

first

of

[B.G. 1250

illustrate

the text of the

Theban Recension

of the

Booh

of the Dead.

(EH)

Ra-khu-en-setep-en-Ra, son of the Sun, Sa-Ptah-

mer-en-Ptah.
Sa-Ptah, who was

undoubtedly the

successor of Amen-meses, appears to have

owed his claim

Egypt

to the throne of

to

the fact of his marriage with the lady Tauser, or Ta-usert,

an inscription

at

In

Sahal dated in the

first

year of the kings reign we see the Prince

Kha-em-khebit,
the Horus name of
Sa-Ptah.

of
in

Kush

adoration

king, and a scene at

upon
as

called Seti,

his throne with this

a royal

before

Aswan

cartouches

kneeling
of

the

represents the king seated

same

scribe, fanbearer

Seti,

who

is

described

on the right hand of the

HORUS NAME OF SETI

B.C. 1250]

king, steward of the palace,

Behind him

141

II.

standing before him.

etc.,

the chancellor Ba-meses-kha-em-neteru-

is

in

Bai,

who

declares

that he set the king upon the throne of his father,

and from this statement some have argued that this

official

was the chief instrument that raised Sa-Ptah

the throne of Egypt.

of Sa-Ptah

Horus

it

rising

to
is

in

the north land, which proves that the

i.e.,

allusion is to

among

reared

The Horns name

and we mnst read

of interest,

Khebit,

whom

the god Horus

the papyrus

his

mother

swamps ronnd the

Isis

city ol

Per-Uatchet, or Buto, in the Delta, and not to the

We

actual birthplace of the king.

Ptah reproduces

Thothmes

III.

Ptah

is

Lyons

applied to himself some

The exact length

years before.

thus see that Sa-

Horus name the words which

as his

unknown.

An

in the temple of

hundreds of

of the reign of Sa-

inscription,

Thothmes

found by Major

III. at

Wadi Haifa

in 1893, mentions his sixth year, and another in the

mentions

same place
messenger

C30

to

royal envoy

Syria,

from which we

or

kings

and

Nubia,

may perhaps assume

that

communication was kept up between the kings of Syria,

and the shekhs of Nubia, but that Sa-Ptah assumed

any right of rule over these countries

1

See Denkmaler,

E. de Rouge, op.

Sayce in Recueil, tom.

iii.

pi.

cit.,

202

and

c.

p. 186.
xvii. p. 161.

is

extremely

TOMB OF TA-USERT

142

The royal son

doubtful.
in

official

gifts,

of

Kush

[B.C. 1250

as a

Nubia could make the Nubian

but that

is

permanent

tribes bring

Sa-Ptah seems to have added

all.

nothing to the great temples of Egypt, and though he

is

depicted in reliefs at

and at other places

Silsila

adoring the gods Amen, Ptah, Sekhet, and Nefer-Temu,

such scenes are probably only commemorative of small

repairs
to

which he carried

have built a tomb

Tombs

of the

that his
usert

mummy was

but

it

XXth

of the

Kings

The king does not seem

out.

for himself in the Valley of the

and we must assume

at Thebes,

buried in the tomb of his wife Ta-

was removed during the disturbed times

Dynasty for safety to the tomb of Amen-

hetep

II., for it

tomb

of

was found there early

Queen Ta-usert (No.

14)

The

in 1898.

was made on the plan

usually adopted by royal personages, and consisted of

three or four corridors and a

number

of rectangular

chambers, the largest of which contained eight square

pillars.

The

walls

of the

chambers were decorated

with scenes representing the queen in adoration before

various gods, and with texts from Chapters cxlv.,

clvi.,

Booh of the Bead. The tomb

was usurped by Set-nekht, who plastered over most of

clvii., clviii., etc.,

of the

the portraits of the queen which were on the walls,

and who caused his own portrait

to

be drawn on the

new plaster, together with his cartouches,

The remains

Ptah were excavated by Professor Petrie

1

titles,

of the funeral temples of Ta-usert

Six Temples at Thebes London, 1897,

,

p.

13

in 1896, 1
ff.,

etc.

and Sa-

plate 22.

and

ARSU THE SYRIAN

C. 1250]

M3

the evidence which he obtained by deduction from the

foundation

apparently supports that which

deposits

had been long ago obtained from the inscription of Rameses-kha-em-neteru-Bai

The temple

Aswan.

at

of

Ta-usert was situated between those of Mer-en-Ptah

and Thothmes IY.

the temple of Sa-Ptah

north of the temple of Amen-hetep II.

lies to

Many

the

of the

foundation deposits and sandstone blocks are inscribed

with the names and

of the

those

iniquity,

With
to

great

the king, and

who

and raised Sa-Ptah

many with

put an end to

Egypt.

to the throne of

XIXth Dynasty came

be no man who had the

the death of Sa-Ptah the

an end, and there seemed to

power

to take in his

was once more

anarchy.
(j

titles of

chancellor

hands the sceptre of Egypt, which

falling into a state of lawlessness

About

time

this

w h m

Syrian

more

called

and

Arsu,

will be said later,

succeeded in making himself master of a portion of

Syria

and Egypt, and

he

compelled

chieftains to acknowledge his authority

tribute

but for

illegal authority

His

how

several

and

to

local

pay him

long he continued to exercise his

cannot be said.

name was shortened

to

Bai

compare

x 44

CHAPTER

III.

THE TWENTIETH DYNASTY.

.

S>
Wf1
a
\

:^-n-

Ra-usr-khau-Ra-setep-en-Amen-meri, son of the Sun,

Set-nekht-merer-Ra-merer-Amen.
was

Sa-Ptah

by

king

Set-nekht, or Nekht-Set, who

called

succeeded

seems to have been a

relative, or con-

nexion by marriage, of Rameses

II.,

but

we have no evidence which will show

how close that relationship or connexion

Ka-nekht-urpehpeh, the
Horus name of
Set-Nekht.

was.

His reign must have been very

short,

and

it

is

probable that Set-nekht

was obliged

to

spend several years in

conflict

with the Syrian usurper Arsu and

with his own relatives who, like himself,

were descended from the great kings of the

XIXth

Dynasty, before he could consider himself the actual

ruler of Egypt.

We

find

that he

adopted a Horus

name, but on account of the absence of inscriptions

THE REIGN OF SET-NEKHT

B.C. 1233]

dating from his period

titles

the

we

of

derived from the great papyrus written by

order of Eameses III., wherein

of

Our knowledge

when he ascended the

condition of the country

is

what other

are unable to say

he bestowed upon himself.

throne

145

Qemt, ^

(i.e.,

state of ruin, and every

man

we read

The land

Egypt), had fallen into a

did that which

it

seemed

him to do, and for very many years the

people had no chief governor (literally, upper mouth,
u<~^> ^ ^ who was a^ e
maintain dominion
right

for

over the

others.

The land

Egypt was

of

in

the

hands of the governors of the nomes, and among the

nobles and lords of the land one killed the other [as
he pleased].

There came a period

after that of years of

want and great misery, and Arsu,

the

made himself

Syrian

placed the

over them.

prince

He

whole country under tribute to him, and

each man gathered whatsoever he could

and plundered the

for himself,

others,

and they

treated the gods in this

manner likewise

as well as

men, and the

which ought

have been

made

property of

sacrifices

threw

according to law

to the gods in the temples

were never offered up at

these

all.

men and brought

to

Then the gods

over-

peace into the country,

1 See
Birch, Facsimile of an Egyptian Hieratic Papxjrus of
Bameses III., London, 1875, pi. 75; a translation of the whole
papyrus will be found in Records of the Past O.S., vol. vi. pp. 23,

70

vol. viii. pp. 5-52.

VOL. V.

SET-NEKHT WITH RAMESES

146

and they made

and fashioned

III.

the country to he what

it

[B.C. 1233

ought to

according to what was right.

it

be,

And

they stahlished their son who had proceeded from

their

members

Health

to

be

Prince (Life,

the

of every land which

!)

was under

Strength,

their throne,

Ra-usr-khau-setep-en-Ra-meri-Amen, son of the Sun,

Set-nekht-merer-Ra-merer-Amen.

And he became

like

Khepera-Set

when he burneth with wrath and rageth,

and he provided with all things the land which was
in a condition of revolt and misery, he slew all those

who were

disloyal in the

throne of Egypt.
of the

He

Land

of the Inundation,

Egypt), and he purified the great

(i.e.,

He became

the sovereign Prince

two lands upon the throne of the god Tern.

gave himself to the reconstruction of the things

which had
every

and

at length

regarded as his brethren those

who had

fallen into a state of decay,

man

from him as by a wall.

been divided

He

and provided them with divine

the temples,

stablished
offerings,

and men made the offerings which they ought

make unto the company of the gods according

to

to

their ordinances.

As soon

as Set-nekht, of Nekht-Set,

had established

himself on the throne he appears to have associated

his son

country.

Rameses

III.

with him in the rule of the

proof of this

is

supplied by a scene at

Medinet Habu, where over a door are seen figures

1

of

two kings kneeling, one on each side of the suns

1

Lepsius, Denkmaler

iii.

pi.

206.

THE MUMMY OF SET-NEKHT

B.C. 1233]

disk resting on

on

cartouches

cQd; the

horizon,

tlie

147

one side are those of Set-nekht, and the cartouches on

Of the building
we know nothing, but it is

the other are those of Raineses III.

operations of Set-nekht

probable that he carried out a few pressing repairs, 1

name has been found at Memphis and Karnak.

The king was mummified, and was probably buried in

for his

the

tomb

but

if

of

the queen Ta-usert, which he usurped,

M. Loret

be relied upon, his

is to

have been removed from

the

XXth Dynasty

it

the

to

mummy

must

in the unsettled times of

tomb of Amen-hetep

which was found by him early in 1898.

II.,

Some think

that the tomb of Rameses III. in the Valley of the

Tombs

of the Kings

nekht, for the

name

at

Thebes was begun by Set-

of this

king can be distinctly

traced in several places in the

When

first

three chambers.

Set-nekht died his own tomb was not finished,

and his relatives seized the tomb of Ta-usert, and

enlarged

it

by adding a

with eight square

pillars,

and a sanctuary or niche

The

portraits of the

plastered
places,

over

corridor,

and a large chamber

and four small side chambers,

for his statue at the

end of

it.

queen in the entrance rooms were

and the kings portrait put in their

but the whole work was so hastily executed

that those

who

carried

it

out had not the time to

make

the necessary alterations in the grammatical construction, etc., in the hieroglyphic texts

which were rendered

imperative by making them apply to a

1

They are tabulated by Wiedemann,

man

instead

op. cit., p. 490.

REIGN OF RAMESES

148
of a

We may

woman.

consideration of

Eameses

Exodns

III.,

tlie

that

passing to tbe

before

note,

[B.C. 1200

III.

reign

of Set-nekhts great

son

Prof.

Wiedemann

the

Egypt

of the Israelites from

thinks

is far

more

likely

have taken place in the period which followed the

to

rule of Seti II. than under

condition of the

Menephthah, because the

country, with

its

lack of a central

government and with uprisings on every

more favourable

to the

was

far

flight of the children of Israel

immediately after the death of Seti

side,

M (ill

than

earlier.

fturM

Ra-usr-Maat-mer-Amen, son

II.

of the Sun,

Ra-meses-

HEQ-AN.

Ra-messu

III.

or

Rameses

III.,

the

Rhampsinitus of Herodotus, was the son

of Set-nekht,
period,

with whom, for a short

he had been associated in the

His Horus
names were, Mighty Bull, great one of

government of the country.

kings,

and Mighty Bull, beloved of

Maat, stablisher of the lands ; 2 and he

styled himself, Lord of the shrines of

Ka-nekht-aIsutesiUj the

Horus name of
Rameses III.

Nekhebet and Uatchet, mighty one of

festivals, like

Ta-Thenen,

'

AAAAAA

/wwv\

the
1

Horus

of gold,

Aeg. Geschichte , p. 491

mighty one
ff.

Or, Ka-nekEt-meri-Maat-smen-tam,

of

years,

prince,

HIS RISE TO

B.C. 1200]

POWER

149

protector of Egypt, vanquisher of foreign lands, victor

over the

Sati

must have been

etc.

of
of

the Libyans,

Rameses

III.

passed amid scenes of revolt and

bloodshed, for in the

him

subduer

The youth

(Asiatics),

enlarger of Egypt,

summary

by

of his reign given

in the great Harris Papyrus, the few lines of text

which describe his accession are followed

at once

by

summary of two or three of his great wars which he

waged against the Libyan tribes and their allies. Of
a

himself he says,

pointed me
the

mouth,

(i.e.,

his father Set-nekht)

to be the erpdt

throne

<=

He

and I became the great chief

of Seb,

>

ap-

hereditary chief) on

(or,

Q em

^ an(^ s

ruler of the whole country, everywhere

and

f>

alike.

Father Amen, the lord of the gods, and Ra, and Tern,

and Ptah of the Beautiful Face made me

as lord of the two lands

and

upon the

I received the rank of

my

seat of

to rise

my

up

begetter,

father with cries of

joy, and the whole country was content thereat, and

it was pleased, and rejoiced and was glad to see me

the Ruler of the two lands even as Horus ruleth the

two lands from the throne

with the Atef crown

myself the

crown with

I was crowned

of Osiris.

and the

uraei.

the

I fastened upon

double

plumes

like

Ta-tenen, and I seated myself upon the throne of

Heru-khuti, being arrayed in the decorated apparel

of royalty
1

like Tern .

Harris Papyrus, Brit. Mus., No. 9900, plate 76.

LEAGUE OF HOSTILE LIBYAN TRIBES

150
In

the

which

lines

peoples

hostile

follow

2
haqu,
1

/ww\a

l]

(j

/w/ww

the

Qe-

Taanaunau, 3

the

ra

r\

..

Shairetana,

among

words

these

enumerated:

are

[B.C. 1200

^rom their islands

the Tchahireu, 4

:=>

the Puirsathau, 5

1 r

the Uasheshn of the

sea,

r~w~i

AA/WW
AAAAAA

AAAAAA

the Shasu,

Saaaireu, 7

the

(0

era
i

TYTflT

'j

mer, 9

m ^

f!

1;

the Rebn, or Lebu-

;
j

the Qaiqashau,

shaiu

tbe

Mashuaashau, 10

the

the Sabatau

Hasau,

the

f[]

I.e.,

Danaans

4
6

Sardians

Bahanau,

and other Libyan

2

(?).

from Crete or Asia Minor.

Tenkrians (?) from Crete.
Axians from Crete.

Nomad

the

tribes.

Libyans.

(?)

Semites.

>

Libyans of the

Philistines.

People from Seir.

sea.

)0

Maxyes.

DEFEAT OF THE LEAGUE

B.C. 1200]

The

here mentioned

tribes

have been preparing

for

and tbeir

war

151

seem

allies

to

some years before

for

they ventured to make a great attack upon Egypt,

and

appears that Raineses III.

it

made no attempt

to

check tbeir preparations, whilst he was himself making

ready an army of sufficient size and strength to make
the

victory

of the

The enemy,

Egyptians certain.

however, was strong, and had the practical sympathy

not only of the tribes which were akin to him, but

and in the land which

also of the dwellers in the Delta,

lay between

In

the

forces

Egypt and

attacked

Syria.

year

fifth

of

Rameses

the

III.

allied

Egypt under the leadership of

or

Tit,

but their hosts were defeated,

and they had the mortification of seeing about twelve

thousand of their dead warriors mutilated

1
.

Large

numbers of prisoners were taken, and Rameses

us that he made

tells

many

of

them enter

III.

his service,

and that when he had done so he garrisoned some of

the larger cities of

Three
his

reign,

frontier

later,

,an

invasion

i.e.,

of

in

the

eighth

Egypt on

was threatened by the

lrEor the
pi. 46.

Egypt with them.

years

Egyptian text see Diimichen,

allied

its

year

of

north-east

armies of a

Hist. Inschriften i \o\.

ii.

THE SYRIAN LEAGUE

152

number

of nations and tribes,

[B.C. 1200

among whom were the

Puirsatha or Philistines, and peoples from Crete and

Cyprus and from the northern shores of the Medi-

who arranged
way that the invaders

terranean,

their plan of attack in such

of Egyptian territory by sea

might be assisted by their

allies

on land.

allies

many

on land were

Among

the

nations which had formerly

been numbered with the

Kheta,

but which,

owing

either to the weakness of the central government in

Northern Syria or to

drawn
and

overthrow, had been

its entire

into the league of the Mediterranean sea-robbers,

appeared as the foes of Egypt.

again

once

so

Rameses

III. collected

his

ships and his soldiers, and

when

was ready he

left

Egypt, and passing through

all

made

the famous frontier fortress of Tchar,

into Palestine

we may assume

his

that his soldiers

were in the ships were never very

far

way
who

from his soldiers

on land, and that their movements were always care-

At length the combatants met, and

fully regulated.

a fierce fight took place between

battle-field

situated

and

it

fought
the

is

many

is

unknown, but
days

it

them

the site of the

cannot

march from the

have

fortress

been
Tchar,

most probable that the battle was actually

in

Palestine.

mercenaries,

enemy appear

to

were

have

The

Egyptians,

victorious,

and

thanks

though

to

the

fought with great bravery,

they yielded by degrees and at length took to

flight,

tried to reach their vessels,

which seem to have

been drawn up on the sea shore.

They were followed

and

VICTORY OF THE EGYPTIANS

B.C. 1200]

153

by the Egyptians, who pursued them with vigour, and

when

the foe arrived at the coast and attempted to

escape in their ships they found their course blocked

by the ships of the Egyptian navy, and they were thus

caught between two

fires

the allies dwelling on the

Mediterranean coasts and the robbers on the high seas

were completely defeated, and large numbers of them

were killed or taken prisoners.

The Egyptian
fight

annalist naturally magnifies this sea-

which

in

and

victorious,

all-important

countrymen

his

rightly

to

so,

signally

so

because the victory was

Egyptians

the

were

had the

enemy

escaped in the ships of their allies they would have

been free to repeat the exploits of their predecessors

in

the

reign

in

the

downfall

Rameses

III.

of

Amen-hetep
of

IV.,

which

resulted

Egyptian power in

the

Syria.

having thus disposed of the enemy in

Palestine marched up into Syria, and passing through

the provinces which had once been in the possession of

Egypt, attempted to make the people acknowledge his

sovereignty,

and

also

to

pay him tribute as their

ancestors had paid tribute to the kings of

days of

old.

successful, if

His attempt was

we may judge by the

wrought in the country,

and

set fire to the

villages,

fashion.

with

for

not,

Egypt

in the

apparently, very

destruction which he

he cut down the

fruit trees,

standing corn, and laid waste whole

and looted and plundered in true Oriental

When Rameses

spoil,

III. returned to

Egypt laden

the people probably thought that there was

SECOND LIBYAN ATTACK

I 54

[B.C. 1200

campaigns which had

to be a revival of the annual

formed such a prominent feature of the reigns of the

XVIIIth Dynasty, hut

great kings of the

they did

if

they were mistaken, for both in the sea-fight and in

the raid which followed

it,

knew

the Egyptians

well

that they had only saved themselves by the greatest

good fortune, and that henceforth Egypt would have

guard herself with the utmost diligence

keep even the

to

if

to

she intended

line of frontier fortresses in

her own

possession.

Rameses
himself

having returned to Egypt, devoted

III.,

work

the

to

of

building

and

palace

other edifices at Thebes, but before they were finished

the

peace

Libyans,

Egypt was

of

who made

again

under the leadership of Kapur

his

son

Mashauasha

numbers, and

if

tribe.

Rameses

who had assembled

out to meet his foes,

was the individual

Menthu seemed

to

body of the king

acts of bravery

and

III.

marched

in very large

on the part of the

The gods Bar and

have taken up their abode in the

for

he was as

terrible

as they in

and the enemy believed that they had a super-

natural being to contend with.

1

we may believe the Egyptian annalist

king which won him the day.

battle,

V&
J

Mashashare,

chiefs of the

it

upon the country

1
,

by the

disturbed

a second attack

For the text see Diimichen,

The Libyans

Hist. Inschriften, vol.

i.

were

pi. xiii.

ff.

VICTORY OF THE EGYPTIANS

B.C. 1200]

surrounded by

powder

fire

and their bones were burned

in their flesh;

if they

155
to

they inarched on the land as

had been marching

to the place of slaughter

their hosts were massacred where they were, their

mouths were shut

blow.

for ever,

Their captains

down

at a

in front of

them

and they

who marched

fell

were tied together like birds before the

hawk which

darts upon them from his hiding-place within the

The

wood.

enemy

soul of the

time that they

would pass their

said for the second

lives

on the frontiers

till

the valleys and

of Egypt, and that they would

plains thereof as their
came

upon them

own

in Egypt,

possessions.

But death

and on their own

entered into the furnace which burneth up

into the
at

them

of the bravery of the king

fire

like

limbs were

his right

Bar from the heights

him and was

them

his

All his
;

with

and his

left

in front of

arrows against them to destroy

sword cut like that of his father Mentliu.

Kapure, who had come to receive the adoration [of

the king], was

like

who were

and

filth,

of heaven.

seized the multitudes,

they

who raged

endowed with the might of victory

hand he

stretched itself out over those

feet

like a blind

down upon the ground, and

uttered a cry for

man, and cast his weapons

his

army did likewise

mercy which went up

of heaven, and his son stopped his

.

His

Majesty

granite mountain,

fell

upon

foot

their

their blood

he

and his hand.

heads

and he crushed them

mixed the earth with

to the heights

like

utterly,

and

which ran down

EGYPTIAN ACCOUNT OF

156

The

like water.

warriors slain

soldiers

[B.C. 1200

were slaughtered, and their

and beaten, and

[others] were captured

their arms were tied together like the wings of geese

on

The king

a boat beneath the feet of his Majesty.

was

like

rested

unto the god Menthu, and his victorious feet

upon the head

of the enemy,

whose

chiefs were

smitten and held fast within his hand.

enemy

and his

were smitten as

fell at

The

the feet of his Majesty, and his captains,

allies,

and his soldiers were

if

lost.

His eyes

he had looked upon the form of

the Sun,

and his warriors came quickly leading their

children

and carrying

themselves the
lord of

prisoners of his Majesty.

Egypt was

to
.

The enemy

their hearts,

to see the valour of

said,

We

make
The

the goddess Sekhet

and their

burned to powder in their bodies.

country rejoiced

[as] the fire of

among them, and he destroyed

bones were

hands

gifts in their

All the

Rameses

[III.].

have heard of the plans of the

fathers of our fathers, and the breaking of our backs

by Egypt hath arisen through them

selves in revolt, and

we put

our-

we -imagined that we could do

at our own instigation
The Libyans have troubled us

what we pleased, and we ran

to seek the flame.

even as they troubled themselves; we have

to their thoughts

have

sinned,

eternity.

and the

fire

listened
;

we

for

all

hath burned us up

and we have been punished

Their offence was to see the frontiers of

Egypt, and

Menthu with

delightetli in battle,

the victorious arms

Rameses

[III.]

who

hath made them

THE SECOND LIBYAN WAR

B.C. 1200]

to enter into the underworld.

157

The country

of the

Mashauasha hath been smitten down at a blow, and

their friends the Libyans have been slaughtered,

they shall never reap again.

Setting aside
the prowess of

Egyptians

and

these high-flown descriptions of

all

Raineses III.,

what

gained

it

they

that

clear

is

well

believed

the

to

be

a great victory, and that they took great booty from

the

They

vanquished.

young women, 151,

342

captured

(.

girls,

women,

65

the commander-

in-chief of the

152 petty
of the

the

Mashauasha, 5 generals, 1205 men,

and 131 young men; and 2175

officers,

Mashauasha were

spoil

swords

carried

off

five cubits long,

slain

by his Majesty.

by the

Egyptians

Among

were

115

124 swords three cubits long,

603 bows, 93 chariots, 2310 quivers, 92 spear-heads,

183 horses and

Rameses

III.

asses,

and large numbers of

cattle.

was now master of the countries on both

sides of the Delta,

and he was able

to

resume his

building operations, and to carry out at his leisure

various schemes in connexion with the development of
trade between

Egypt and the neighbouring

for the only other expedition

the defeat of the Libyans was

people called Saaire,

nations,

which he undertook
directed
'j

j.

after

against the

The Saaire

1
See Diimichen, Hist. Inschriften, vol. i. pi. 26; and Chabas,
Etudes sur V Antiquite Historique, Paris, 1873, p. 238 ff.
3
See Brit. Mus., Papyrus No. 9900, sheet 176, line 9.

^
THE ARCHITECTURAL WORKS AND

158

[B.C. 1200

are described as belonging to the tribes of tlie Shasu,

4^ ra

thought

to

have lived on and about Mount

be identical with the

they

may

well

have

*03.

been

and

are

l>

Seir,

and

to

of Genesis xxxvi. 20 ;

Edomites.

Some have

thought that, because Raineses III. included the names

of certain

Nubian countries

in the lists of conquered

lands which were inscribed upon his temples, he waged

wars in Nubia, but this does not follow, for

many

of his lists are palpable copies of those of his ancestors,

and there

is

very good reason for doubting the

historical character of

remembered

many

parts of them.

that, according to the

If

it

be

Egyptian evidence,

fewer than 2500 Libyans were killed in the great battle

of Raineses III. against the Libyans

and their

allies,

and that fewer than 2500 were taken prisoners, we shall

be able to estimate at their true worth the boastful
rejoicings,

which,

when

translated

into

words,

he

allowed to be inscribed on the walls of his temples.

The punishment which Mer-en-Ptah inflicted upon the

Libyans was much more severe, and there is little
doubt that Rameses III. wished fervently that his
predecessor had followed up his advantage and pursued
the Libyan king until he had caught him and killed
him.

The
III.

last

few pages of the great Papyrus of Rameses

supply us with some valuable information conMuller, Asien und Europa, p. 136.

MINING OPERATIONS OF RAMESES

B.C. 1200]

cerning

tlie

159

III.

works which were carried on by the king,

both architectural and mining, and we find that for pur/WWA

o a\ /WVW\
poses of trade he built a large well,

country of Aaina,

in the

(|(|

i.e.

between Mount Casius and Raphia on the

district

road from Egypt to Syria, which he surrounded with a

strong building twenty

The

cubits high.

fleet of

large boats

whom

with crews, among

certain of always

camels there.

finding water for their

coast

were numbers of bowmen,

Red

of the

the

seems, too, that the same

it

rate a part of

Raineses III.

which he provided

and he directed them to trade on

2

and thirty

which passed that way

Egypt might be

from Syria into

(?)

object of this fortified well was, of

course, that the royal caravans

next built a

square

cubits

fleet,

Phoenician
or at any

went to the land of Punt, to the south

it,

Sea, for the king declares that his ships

returned laden with

all

the marvellous products of the

country or region called Neter-taui,

that

unloaded

they

Coptos,

the mountain of Qebti,

We may

at some port near Kuser.

i.e.,

conclude

at

that

one

fleet

waters and another in the

was kept

Red

in

then

Sea.
w

AAAAAA

n\m
2

or

Mediterranean

fuumu,
1

and

1
1

Literally,
3
a*,

in

WWWl

the

great

<=>

sea

/WWW
aa/wvv aaaaaa

of
J

the

water

[Jv]

of

Qet,

PROSPERITY OF EGYPT

i6o

The copper industry

of the Sinaitic Peninsula was,

apparently, re-startecl by
sent from

Egypt

Rameses

i.e.,

Arab authors, and the metal

the Grebel Ataka of the

Upper Egypt.

work the

was brought

Red
by way

in the

loaded on asses and so carried

into

and envoys were

in ingots

Egypt

ships to the port for

Hammamat

III.,

work the copper mines of Aathaka,

to

sent to

[B.C. 1200

turquoise

of 'the

Other

officers

Wadi
were

mines in the Sinaitic

Mdfeh, and large numbers of

Peninsula,
o

in

Sea, and then

fine

III

genuine stones were carried to the king in Egypt.

The

greatest

efforts

were made by Rameses III. to

ensure the success of his trading expeditions, and

all

his care seems to have been devoted to the development

new markets and the maintenance of the old ones.

The mercenaries who were scattered throughout Egypt

of

maintained peace,
paid,

and as long as their wages were

and they were allowed

to

lead a

parative ease they were faithful enough

was now all-important

to

life

of com-

their presence

the Egyptians because

it

prevented the Shasu and the Rebu, or Libyans, from

renewing their attacks on the country.

The

latter part of the reign of

Rameses

III.

was an

era of peace and plenty, and of great mercantile success,

and the merchant princes of Punt and Syria feared not

to

come

to

Egypt with

their wares because they

knew

that Egypt was no longer a sovereign country bent on

conquest, but a land ruled by a king whose aim was

SECURITY OF LIFE AND PROPERTY

B.C. 1200]

The king

commercial enterprise.

of successful

the prosecution

I made

says,

the whole

covered with blossom-bearing

the people
shade.

to

down

sit

made

it

the land

Qehaq

man

or

would molest

beneath their

dwell)

woman among

my

In

her.

woman

and to

the people of

time I made the

Shairetana

the

of

out at full length on their hacks,

all

free step whithersoever she

to dwell in their towns,

afraid,

and I made

trees,

(or,

cavalry and the bowmen

country to he

possible for an Egyptian

to walk with a bold and

pleased, and no

161

lie

down

and

stretched

and they were not

because there was no fighting with Kush,

nor with the Syrian

foes,

(j>

AAAAAA

(jjj

Their bows and their weapons

war were laid

up inside their guard-houses, and they

were filled with

of with

ol

meat and drink which they partook

rejoicings,

and their wives and their children

were with them, and they looked not behind them

because their hearts

were glad.

And

in conclusion

the king says that he gave entire freedom to gentle

and simple, and to rich and poor, that he pardoned

the malefactor and relieved the oppressed, and that he
did that which was good both to gods and to

Brit. Mus.,

Papyrus No. 9900, plate

78,

11.

YOL. Y.

2
.

9-12.

/WWV\

AA/WW

men

s mam's
M

THE PAVILION OF RAMESES

162

The

III.

facts of the history of the reign of

[B.C. 1200

Eameses

III.

bear out the general accuracy of the above description

of the state of the country, and

it is

easy to understand

the rapidity with which Egypt lost her position of

power among the nations

Among
be

after the death of

mentioned

The Temple-Fortress

of

the

Rameses

From

at

III.

the numerous buildings of Rameses III. must

specially

Rameses

Rameses

III.

III. at

of

Medinet Habu.

a photograph by A. Beato, Luxor.

and the Great Temple which he erected

Medinet ^Habu.

to reproduce in

The pavilion represents an attempt

Egypt a small fort

to the forts in use

It consisted of

high and 26

so-called Pavilion

feet

among

or strong city similar

the people of Northern Syria.

two rectangular towers about 72

feet

wide; the walls behind them open out

DESCRIPTION OF THE PAVILION

B.C. 1200]

close together until finally the

On

building unite.

which the king

two wings of the

the south tower are sculptures in

represented clubbing his enemies,

is

the Ethiopians and the Libyans

bank

and

court, but they soon contract,

and form a small

come

163

of the Nile,

who

and the chiefs of the

Some

Tursha, and Mashauasha.

i.e.,

on the west

live

of the

Tulslia,

or

here

chiefs

represented have the features of negroes, but the chief

of the

On

Mashauasha somewhat resembles a Semite.

the north tower are represented the chiefs of Asiatic

and Mediterranean

among them being the

peoples,

vile -prince of Kheta, the vile prince of Amare, or

<

Amaur,

>

~^

jXj or
(|

(j

and

the chiefs of the tribes of the Tchakaire, of the Shaire-

tana of the

sea, of the

Shakalasha, of the Thuirsha of

the sea, and of the Pulastha, or Philistines.

In the

space between the two towers are scenes in which the

king

depicted in the act of worshipping the gods

is

Anher-Shu,

p=q

Tefnut, Temu, Iusaaset,

Jj

The

gods.

P o
walls

Sekhet, Thoth, and other

of

the

upper

rooms,

which

are

entered by a staircase in the south tower, are decorated

with

reliefs

number

of

in

which the king

women who

him

fan

some

reliefs

the

king

draughts with a naked

is

surrounded by a

or play the tambourine,

and who bring him flowers and

in

is

fruit

seated

woman who

and drink,
and

etc.

is

playing

stands

on the

USE AND OBJECT OF THE PAVILION

164

[B.C. 1200

other side of the table which supports the draught-

board.

The meaning of these

this portion of the building

the king, but as

it

said

as a palace
1

by

the rooms are

have been employed as a dwelling-

place by Rameses III. and his train.

Amen-hetep

discussed,

proved by them that

was used

M. Daresay has

far too small ever to

much

scenes has been

and many writers have thought

III. at Birket

Habu and

hetep IV. at Khut-Aten, or Tell

el-

The

palace of

of his son

Amen-

Amarna, prove that

the palaces of Egyptian kings consisted of large onebuildings,

storied

contained a great

made
number

unbaked

of

which

brick,

rooms wherein the only

of

luxury apparent was in the decorations which adorned

As there

the walls.
reliefs

are

no

we cannot say who the

inscriptions

with the

ladies with the king are,

but some of them appear to be of royal rank, although

the queen

is

not

among them.

M. Daressy

to think that this portion of the building

is

inclined

was used

as a

place where the kings daughters were educated under

the care of priestesses, but, on the other hand,

it

may

have been the abode of the servants of the god Amen,

which the king only, as the incarnation of the god

to

Amen

on earth, had access.

Rameses
himself,

and

The Great Temple

of

was built by the king to commemorate

it is,

perhaps, the most interesting of

funerary chapels

the
1

III.

on the Nile

at

Thebes

all
it

Notice explicative des ruines de Medinet Habou, Cairo, 1897,

p. 57.

B.C. 1200]

GREAT TEMPLE OF RAMESES

measures 500

ornamented

feet

by 160

witli scenes,

and

feet,

ing the campaigns of the king.

the towers of the

first

and

On

pylon the

its

walls were

and texts

reliefs,

165

III.

illustrat-

the lower parts of

reliefs represent

the

of representatives of vanquished

king clubbing a number

and near these are 86 captives, arranged in

two rows, with their names enclosed within ovals on

peoples,

The

first

Court of the Temple at Medinet Habu.

From a photograph by
their bodies.

The types

A. Beato, Luxor.

of features of these captives are

Semitic, Northern Syrian, and Negro, but

the arrangement of the faces

is

an

it is

clear that

artificial one,

and

it

does not follow that the features of any captive necessarily

represent those which are suggested by the
his body.

The

list

of

names

is

made up

name on

of portions of

TEMPLE OF KHENSU AT KARNAK

l66
the

nations conquered by

lists of

and Rameses

and

accompanying

the

peoples

Cyprus,

Phoenicia,

Syria,

Thothmes III.,

of little

is

The

purposes.

historical

from

and

II.,

text

[B.C. 1200

Seti

I.,

value for purely

represented

Libya,

etc.,

boastful

in

describes

are

Kush,

language the kings victory over the Libyans.

In the

first

court are reliefs which describe his battle

with the Libyans in the eleventh year of his reign,

and texts which describe the chief events in

give the

amount of

spoil

taken

and

it

in this court are seven

rectangular pillars, in the front of each of which was a

In

statue of the god Osiris, about twenty feet high.

the second court are reliefs which depict the defeat of

and of their

the Mediterranean peoples

Northern Syria.

the temple by the earthquake which took place

and

this is not to be

wondered

from

allies

damage was done

great deal of

at

to

B.c. 27,

when we remember

that the foundations of the temple are only six feet

deep, and that they

Karnak Rameses

rest

upon a bed of sand.

god Khensu, the third member of the Theban

the

greater

part

triad,

but

of its decoration was completed by

Rameses IV. and by others

built

At

a temple in honour of the

III. built

of his successors

small temple near, the great temple

he also
of the

goddess Mut.

At

Rameses

contained
tiles

el-Yahudiyeh,

Tell

Jewess,

i.e.,

III.

built

chamber

lined

ornamented

with

the

Mound

small

palace

of

the

which

with beautifully glazed

floral

designs,

and

figures

TELL EL-YAHUDIYEH

B.C. 1200]

of birds, and animals,

and representatives of foreign

conquered tribes and nations

examples of these

finest

Bev.

Grreville

most

the

of

J.

exertions

B.A.,

groups

interesting

Yahudiyeh represents the

site

the late

of

and they form one

the

of

exhibited in that institution

faience

of tbe

were acquired by tbe

the

Chester,

number

a large

tiles

Museum through

British

167

1
.

of the

objects

in

That Tell

el-

temple which

Onias, the high-priest of the Jews, built at Onion in the

reign of Ptolemy Philometor

it is

I.

seems clear enough, but

not so evident what ancient Egyptian city once

Some have thought that the

stood there.

of the city of Heliopolis,

site is

however, have been a northern

there may,

and

southern part of the city which were called

Meht and Annu Resu

we

that

but this seems hardly possible;

a

Annu

respectively, especially as

learn from the great Papyrus of Rameses III. that

he built the palace of Bameses

in the House of the Sun

[III.],

prince of Annu,

to the north of

Annu , 2 and

that he called this palace the palace of millions of

years
1

of

Bameses

[HI.], prince

See Brugsch Bey, On

et

of

Annu . 3

Onion in Becueil, tom.

viii.

The
p. Iff.;

Trans. 80c. Bibl. Arch ., vol. yii. p. 177 f.

DnOMfElf iPkTTIT
^

(plate xxix. 8).

mn ^
MnTf'ikfmimifB
(plate xxix. 8).

BENEFACTIONS OF RAMESES

i68
palace

of

millions

was

years

of

III.

[B.C. 1200

dedicated

Rii-Harmachis, and this suggests at least that the

of the palace of Raineses III.

Many
rebuilt

or near Heliopolis. 1

temples of Egypt were either

of the ancient
or repaired

was in

to
site

by -Rameses

III.,

and his name

is

found upon their remains in many places between the

Mediterranean Sea and Wadi Haifa.

however,

which

he

most

Amen-Ra

at Thebes,

Temu

The
were

favoured

at Heliopolis,

Memphis, and the enumeration of the

he made to the gods and of the

temples,

those

of

and Ptah

offerings

at

which

gifts of gold, silver,

copper, scented woods, precious stones, linen, perfumes,

oil,

incense, wine, bread, cakes, oxen, sheep, feathered

fowl, fish, fruit, flowers, garden-herbs, statues, etc.,

dozens of large sheets of papyrus.

magnitude of his
ing figures
things,
cattle

gifts

may

An

fills

idea of the

be gathered from the follow-

To the three gods

he gave, besides other

2756 images, 113,433 men, 490,386 oxen and

of various

kinds,

1,071,780

514 vineyards and orchards, 88

arums

boats,

of

land,

160 towns of

Egypt, 9 towns of Syria, 324,750 bundles of fodder,

71,000 bundles of

flax,

426,965 water-fowl, 1,075,635

rings, scarabs, etc., 2,382,650 sacks of fruit,

fat geese,

355,084 blocks of

loaves of bread, 490,000

salt

fish,

353,919

and natron, 6,272,431

19,130,032 measures of

Tell el-Yahudiyeh was excavated by the late Dr. H. Brugsch

and Mariette, and later by E. Brugsch Bey and Mr. F. LI. Griffith
the work of Mr. Griffith is described by himself in the Antiquities of
1

Tell el-Yah'Qjdiyeh.

TOMB OF RAMESES

C. 1200]

169

III.

vegetables, 1,988,766 jars of honey,

48,236

etc.,

oil,

images of Hapi, and 5,279,552 bushels of corn,

In

Syria,

[~Q

hidden

temple,

Raineses III.

Tcha,

fXt\

built

unto

like

'

fl

in the region called

Pa-Kanana,

Iff

Rameses
self in the

III.

^ YT 91
A/VWNA

Rameses

it

of

and

most

II.,

Thebes.

It is
or,

of

work

Tomb

to it because it contains

as

one of
the

all

commonly known

harpers are depicted

tomb

to

him-

for

of the Kings,

of

certainly

is

Bruces

hastened

'

Tombs

piece

interesting

Harper,

'

a magnificent

built

fine

'

ffl

it.

Yalley of the

though not as

Asiatics of Retennu,

>

bring their offerings to

others

This temple was dedi-

cated to the Sun-god, and the

<

and

Galilee, 1

with a city in

with the country of Canaan.

the

horizon of the heaven above

some identify

etc.

as the

the

the

royal

first

and

the tomb
largest

tombs

Tomb

name

is

at

of the

given

two famous scenes in which

playing harps before the gods

An-her, Shu, and Temu, and the second because

discovered by the great

traveller

it

was

James Bruce (born

December 14th, 1730; died 1794).

The tomb was
begun by Set-nekht, the father of Rameses III., who

hewed out the

1

first

three

chambers,

Maspero, Hist. Anc., tom.

Muller, Asien

und

ii.

and in places

p. 475.

Eurojoa, p. 205.

SARCOPHAGUS OF RAMESES

170

[B.C. 1200

III.

where the plaster has fallen away his name may yet be

hundred

It is abont four

read.

feet in length,

remarkable for the side chambers which open

corridors,

The

two from the

first

represented worshipping
the

extracted from

Book

and from the Book of that which

Underworld,

in the

The red granite mono-

etc.

sarcophagus of the king was found in the large

lithic

hall

and eight from the second.

is

gods, and with texts

of praising Ra,
is

is

the

walls of the chambers, etc., are ornamented with

scenes in which the king

the

and
off

with

tomb, and

square pillars

eight

at

the

end

of the

the form of a cartouche, CZDl;

is in

it

is

covered inside and outside with scenes and inscriptions

from the Book of that which

and

now

is

Paris.

Its

Gr.

Belzoni

(died at

and

1823),

Cambridge
lie

was

Gato in

presented

1823

in

exposed to the

ill

it

was

of

it is

now

the king

for

many

effects of the

Der

from

Museum

al-Bahari,

of

years allowed to

weather on the top

Museum, Cambridge,

The

itself. 1

mummy

and

coffin of

Queen

See Birch, Antiquarian Communications

Catalogue of the Egyptian

Cambridge, Cambridge, 1893, p.

is

now

in

the

It had, in ancient times,

at Cairo.

been deposited in the

my

by
3rd,

was found among the royal mummies

brought

University

the

to

inside the building

Egyptian

and

Louvre

December

Benin,

of the steps of the Eitzwilliam

but

of the

brought to England

cover was

at

in the Underworld,

is

Museum

preserved in the

Nefert-ari,

vol.

iii.

and

pp. 371-378

Museum in the Fitzwilliam Museum,

1

ff.

MUMMY OF RAMESES

B.C. 1200]

some time regarded as

was

for

her

mummy

but when

on June

unrolled

was

from

seen

the

it

hieratic

and

III.,

of

new

that

bandages had been pro-

linen

vided for
the

was

mummy

was certainly the

Eameses

it

1886,

1st,

bandages that

writing on the
it

171

III.

in the 9th year of

it

high-priest

Painetchem

Amen-Ra,

of

about

I.,

1100.

b.c.

According to M. Maspero, 1 the

of

features

Rameses

III.

re-

semble those of his great an-

Rameses

cestor

somewhat
more

softer,

intelligent

however,

is

II.,

but

are

and

finer,

and

his

less

figure,

the

straight,

shoulders are narrower, and there

is less

If

vigour in

Rameses

it.

III. did

not be-

come one of the most powerful

of the

Theban heroes

was not due

it

to

of Egypt,

any want of

energy or ability on his part,

but

to

the

feebleness

the

of

century in which he was born

1

Hist.

Anc.,

Momies Eoyales,

tom.
p.

563

ii.
ff.

p.

481

Les

Mummy of
King Rameses

III.

CONSPIRACY AGAINST RAMESES

172

which prevented him from

[B.C. 1200

III.

giving full play to his

To him, however, some credit is due, for when

he ascended the throne of Egypt the country was
genius.

impoverished, and was without soldiers and ships and

money
her

on the west the Libyans had seized some of

possessions,

and

on the

enemies were threatening an attack by

ships,

During

sea.

the thirty-two years of his reign he built a

and merchant

her allied

north-east

fleet of

and formed an army of natives and

mercenaries, and re-established the commerce of

on broad

who
object

and

Egypt

lines.

Towards the
hatched

war

reign a conspiracy was

of his

close

by a number of the
by

were

helped

of

which was

set in

ladies

high

certain

to

kill

of

or

the

court,

officials,

depose

the

the

king

upon the throne of "Egypt one

his place

Pen-ta-urt, the son of the royal concubine

(?)

Thi, 1

who

wished that her son should reign instead of one of the

sons of the royal wife, the great lady, the lady of

the two lands, Ast,

whom

was joined by several

ladies of the court,

she probably hated.

Thi

and she and

they succeeded in corrupting Paibakakamen the steward,

Mest-su-Ba

the

Pen-tuauu the

chancellor,
scribe,

Paanauk the

and the

officials

inspector,

Panifuemta-

Amen, Karpusa, Kha-em-Apt, Kha-em-maa-en-re, Setiem-pa-Tehuti, Seti-em-pa-Amen, Uarma, Ash-hebs-heb,

]

No mention

texts,

and

it is

of Thi as a wife of Raineses III. occurs in the

possible that Pen-ta-urt

and not the son

of the king.

may have been

the brother

CONSPIRACY AGAINST RAMESES

B.C, 1200]

173

III.

Paka-Ra, and Rebu-inini; beside these a number of

other

were also implicated in the conspiracy.

officials

The lady Thi and her

friends- selected

Paibakakamen

the steward for their chief confidant, because his high

made him

position at court

and he was

free to go

he liked without question.

of the

details

brothers

of

advised the
to

act.

plot

practically above suspicion,

where he pleased and do what

It

was he who carried the

from Thi

to

and

sympathizers,

her

officials

who were

The downfall

the
it

mothers and

was he who

his subordinates

or death of the

how

king was to

be brought about by inciting the Egyptian troops

stationed in

by

stirring

at the

Nubia

to revolt

up the people

moment

of

of revolt,

and

to attack

Egypt, and

Egypt themselves

and

to join the

to rise

rebels

working the ruin of the existing government.

commander

of the troops in

in

The

Nubia was favourable

to

the plot, for his sister was one of the court malcontents,

and she had won him over to the cause of Thi and her
son Pen-ta-urt.

Not content with the

means here

described, the conspirators took into their

certain cattle inspector

called Hui,

service

who had

the re-

putation of being a great magician, and having obtained

for

him from the Royal Library

at

Thebes a book

ot

magic, they directed him to do such things as would

result in the death of the king

made

figures of

men

in

and his

Hui
wax and amulets which were
friends.

inscribed with words of magical power, and these he

introduced into the palace by means of a

man whom

CONSPIRACY AGAINST RAMESES

174

he bewitched by his magic.

The amulets were intended

for the ladies in the conspiracy,

make themselves

who by means

hoped

to

whom

they wanted to win over to their

wax

seem

figures

[B.C. 1200

III.

them

of

irresistible to the officials

side,

but the

have been designed to work

to

on the king.

But

the plot was

revealed to

evil

in an evil hour for the conspirators

the king, with the result

that the ringleaders were at once arrested.

Rameses

appointed a commission of inquiry, and having told

the members thereof to investigate the matter quickly

and thoroughly, he ordered that those who were found

commit

guilty of death should

who were condemned

to suffer

suicide,

and that those

punishments of a

less

them without his knowing

The king would give the members
of the commission none of the information which had
been communicated to him by the man who revealed
serious nature should undergo

anything about

the

plot

it.

him, for

to

he wished the matter

threshed out by the usual legal

employed in such

whom

tried

court

of

punishments

means

consisted of eleven judges, six of

officials who
were connected with
hanm, and whose offences were not

the

or

considered to be

sentence

illegal

be

cases.

The commission
the

or

to

sufficiently

death

being

inflicted

grave to

passed

upon

by the court of

warrant the

them

and

ears.

The court

tried Pen-ta-urt, the son of Thi,

the

six judges were

probably beating with sticks on the back or

slitting of the nose

feet,

and

of five judges

and his friends the

B.C. 1200]

A COMMISSION OF INQUIRY APPOINTED 175

bowmen

general of the

in Ethiopia, certain scribes of

Double House of Life, a high-priest

goddess Sekhet, Paibakakamen the steward, and

of the

the

others,

and found them guilty of carrying out the plans of the

lady Thi, and of inciting the soldiery and people to
rebellion,

and of having

spiracy and of
king.

full

knowledge of the con-

making no report on the same

The commander-in-chief

of

Nubia seems

to the
to

have

escaped death, probably because his sister was a lady

in the

hanm

but

the ringleaders were sentenced to

all

death, which they were compelled

own hands; and

forty

have been executed.

Pen-ta-urt,

it

is

men and

to suffer

six

by their

women seem

to

Concerning the would-be king,

who

said, Pen-ta-urt,

by another name, was brought

is

also

known

before the court and

charged with complicity in the conspiracy which his

mother Thi

made with the women

manner hostile to

with acting in a

having been examined by the

hanm, and

of the

his lord the king

officers of

the court the

judges found him guilty, and they sent him away to

his house

where he took his own

life.

Towards the

end of the case against the ordinary

officials

hanm,

six judges

it

was found that three of the

were trying them had been concerned in the

of the

plot,

who
and

they were degraded and tried forthwith and eventually

sentenced to
1

death

1
.

It

is

interesting

to

note that

For the texts and translations see Deveria, Le Papyrus Judiciaire

et les Papyrus Lee et P^ollin, Paris, 1808; and Brugsch,

de Turin

Egypt under the Pharaohs,

vol.

ii.

p. 164.

SUICIDE OF PEN-TA-URT

176
certain of the

who were

criminals

who were probably

[B.C. 1200

of high rank,

nearly related to

and

the king, were

allowed to commit suicide, or at least choose their

manner

own

of death, in their

own

houses, in order that

might be spared the disgrace which would

their families

necessarily attach itself to death at the hands of the

common

executioner.

By what manner
be said, but

it

of death Pen-ta-urt died

cannot

Among

was probably by poison.

the

mummies which M. Maspero found at Der al-Bahari

was one which may well be that of Pen-ta-urt
was

it

enclosed

it

simple,

in

painted white, and

prepared in any way before

mummy,

for it

then swathed.

was

uninscribed

coffin

evident that the body was not

is

it

was

turned into

laid in a thick layer of linen

The hands

and

the feet

are

and
tied

together with strong bandages, the hands being clenched

and the

feet

drawn up as

terrible pain

if

under the influence of some

abdomen has

the

collapsed, the chest

and stomach are thrust forward, the head

is

thrown

back, and the lips are drawn' tightly away from the
teeth.

M. Maspero

was bandaged

alive

is
1

of opinion

that the

deceased

but the appearance of the body

rather suggests that he died in great agony from the

result

of

some strong

bandaging was done

But whatever the cause

1

du

irritant poison,

after

of death, the

Hist. Anc., tom.

ii.

p. 480.

had

set

in.

man must have

La conviction presque simpose qne lhomme

maillot.

and that the

rigor mortis

fut revetu vivant

WIFE AND FAMILY OF RAMESES

B.C, 1200]

177

III.

been of royal rank, otherwise he would not have been

found with the other royal mummies at Her al-Bahari.

From

the great papyrus of Rameses III.

that this king assembled the nobles of his

we learn

kingdom

in

solemn conclave in the thirty-second year of his reign,

and associated his son with him in the rule of the

kingdom;

seems

it

and son lasted

Rameses

was

III.

rule

joint

The

years. 1

called Ast, but

name

also another

the

that
four

for

it

of

father

chief wife

appears that she had

her fathers name was Hu-bunu-

The

re-tchanth
I

sons of Rameses III. were called after the

II.,

Meri-Tem,

e.g.,

Kha-em-Uast,

Ra-meses-meri-Amen,

kkepesh-f,

etc.

preserved

as

tradition

names

of the

Pa-Ra-her-unami-f, Menthu-

sons of Rameses
her-khepesh-f,

expected,

of

Amen-her-

As might be

by Greek writers

name and deeds of Rameses III.,

to note how the common facts of

busied itself with the

and

it is

interesting

his history

who

became distorted

fancies.

them

to

According to Herodotus

he

or as

calls

Maspero,

Brugscli and Bouriant give

121),

the

and

Rameses

'Pafityivnos,

successor

of Pheron,

ibid., p. 481.

Livre des Rois, p. 83.

See

(ii.

him Rhampsinitus,

Erman

YOL. Y.

who added

suit their individual views

was the son of Proteus,

hands of authors

repeated popular accounts of him, and

to or altered

III.,

in the

Ci

0^

ITW]

in Aegyptische Zeitschrift, 1881, p. 61.


HERODOTUS ON RAMESES

178

the successor of Sesostris, and of

following

[B.C. 1200

III.

him he

relates the

After the deceasse of Protheus, Eampsinitus

uppon hym the

rule of the countrey,

of himselfe, lefte

stone, 2

planted westward

agaynst

the

temple

images fyue and twentye cubites in length.

the

other lying

contrary to

all

excelled
coulde

hym

in

of

One

of

sommer, and

call

the west, they tearrne winter,

to

reason

aboundance of wealth,

and

This King in

order.

and plenty of coyne, 4 so

those that came

all

tooke

memorie

whych, stoode two

the which standyng northerly, they

after

farre

hym, that none

go beyonde him, no not approch neere unto

that kynde

hys goodes

wherefore desirous to possesse

in safetie, hee builte

je well-house

in

hehynde hym certayne porches of

Yulcane, 3 right ouer agaynst the

who

of stone, 5

one of

bounded upon the outsyde of hys

hym

a treasurie or

the walles whereof

courte.

In framing

whereof, the workeman had wrought thys subtile

conueyance, one stone, in the wall hee layde in that

forte, that a

or out,

man might

easily at pleasure plucke

which notwithstanding serued

it

in

so fittingly to

place, that nothing coulde be discerned.

When

the

building was finished, the King caused his treasure to

1

The printed

text of B.R. actually has Kampsinitus (Fol. 101a).

Gir.,

ra

I.e.,

the temple of Ptah at Memphis.

Compare the extract from Diodorus on p. 185.

Some chamber in the Pavilion of Rameses

Habn

is

irpoTrvXcua.

here referred

tor.

III. at

Medinet

HERODOTUS ON RAMESES

B.C. 1200]

be brought

and

into

minding henceforth

it,

unto

them

good

in

estate,

passage

into

at

the poynt to

his two sonnes,

and disclosed

artificer

him

dye, called unto

to be secure

In processe of

to lay aside all feare of misfortune.

time, this cunning

179

III.

lying

what manner he had prouided

and most priuy

leauing a secret

in

Kings

the

whereby theyr

treasurie,

whole lyfe might be lead in most

for theyr

happy and blessed

In briefe, he shewed them all that was

done by hym, delyuering them the just measures of

condition.

the stone, that they

it agayne,

mighte not bee deceyued in laying

whychthetwo young youthes

thought from that

counsayle,

if

tyme forwarde

dead,

Kings

not of hys court, and to become the

priuy surueyers of hys jewell-house.

beeing

well marking,

to be of the

Theyr father

they made no long delay to put in

execution theyr determinate purpose, but repayring

to the court by night, they found the stone, which

with small

remoouing

force

sped themselues

wyth

it

from the place, they

plentie of coyne,

and so departed.

In shorte space after the King entering hys treasurie,

and fyndyng the vessels wherein hys money lay to be

somewhat decreased, was

knowing whome

whyche he had

not

to

accuse, seeyng both hys seales

set

on the dore, untouched, and the

dore fast locked at

repayring sundrie

exceedingly amazed,

hys commyng thyther.

Howbeit,

tymes to beholde hys wealth, and

euermore perceyuing that

it

grewe

lesse

and

lesse,

deuised with hymselfe to beset the place where hys

HERODOTUS ON RAMESES

i8o

money

[B.C. 1200

III.

lay with certayne greens or snares to entrappe

the theefe in

These subtile merchaunts accordying

to theyr former wont approching the spring head

where they had dronke so oft before, one of them

went in, and groaping for the money, was so fast
intangled in a snare, that for hys lyfe

how
hee

liee

wist not

to shifte, but seeyng hymselfe in these braakes,

called hys brother, to

happe, willing
least

hym

whome he

any wise

in

disclosed his enill

to cut off

hys head,

beeyng knowne who hee was, they both myght

bee serued with the

same sauce.

His brother hearing

hys counsayle to be good, did as he bade hym, and

fitly

home,

placing the

stone

bearyng with

brother.

as hee

hym

founde

it,

departed

head of hys slayne

the

The nexte day the King opening hys

jewell-

house, and espying an headlesse theefe surprized in a

was wonderfully astonied, seeing euery place

ginne,

safe, and no

In

this

way

in the world to

come

in or out at.

quandary, uncertaine what to thynke of so

straunge an euent, he deuised yet to go another

to the wood, causing the body of the theefe

hanged out uppon the

with

straight

any making moane

thereof,

they

and bryng
these

charge,
or

shoulde

them

to

to

be

walles in open view to all that

passed by, appoynting certayne

place,

way

the

attend in that

to

that

if

they hearde

lamentation

at

the

sighte

foorthwyth

attache

them,

Kyng.

The Mother

of

two Brethren not able wyth patiente eyes to

beliolde the wretched carkasse of her pitifull sonne,

HERODOTUS ON RAMESES

B.C. 1200]

l8l

III.

called the other brother unto her, aduising

some meanes

or

body and hurie

it,

he neglected

to

woulde

open

all

Whome

Kyng.

other,

threatening moreoner, that in case

accomplishe

men.
wyth

speede, shee

nought auayling

affection towardes
to

concepte, to begnyle

wyth

many

her sonne endeuouring wyth

abroache

wittes

it

hys thefte and treacherie to the

woordes to persuade, and

was her

him by

take awaye his brothers

to

her childe) hee set hys

framing

the

(so tender

of

some subtyle

and inueigle the Kyngs watche-

Pannelling sertayne Asses whyche hee loaded

bottels of sweete wyne, hee proceeded forwarde

wyth hys
agaynste

snche tyme as hee came

carryage, tyll

the place

where the watche

priuily unstopping one or

two of hys

laye,

where

bottles, the

wyne

flowed out in greate aboujidance, whereat, fayning as

though hee hadbeene besydes hymselfe, hee piteously

cryed out, tearing

hys hayre add

one bitterly e ignoraunte

whyche

(sic)

to

stampyng as

remedye

The keepers seeyng the wyne gushe out so

hastely

wyth pottes and Cannes

should bee

lost,

fast,

fyrste.

ranne

to receyue it least all

but the dryuer (who had alreadye

cast hys plotte) seemed heereat

muche more inraged

them wyth most

than before, tauntyng and raylyng at

bitter

and reuiling woordes.

Contraryly, the watch-

men

geuing him very fayre and gentle language, hee

seemed better contented, leadyng asyde hys Asses
out of the
carriage

in

way

to

better

newe girde them, and place

order.

his

Manye woordes grewe

HERODOTUS ON RAMESES

182

betweene them whyles be was addressing bys Asses

to proceede on tbeyr waye,

bolting foorth a merry
that

hartily, so

[B.C. 1200

III.

one

bym

caused

bottle of wyne,

wyth them

owne

for

to

laugh

which courtesie they

all tooke in very good parte, requesting

them

of

a good fellowe, be bestowed

lyke

amongst them a

that

till

iest,

hym

to sitte

companye, and drinke parte of hys

Whereto hee willingly consenting, they

cost.

dranke a carouse, every

man hys

wyne began

runne

of

the

coapesmate perceyuing,

set

abroach another bottle,

and began

to

to quaffe afreshe,

cannikin, tyll the

lyes,

whyche

whyche thys

set

my

keepers

in such a tantarra, that beeyng well wetted, they

more by three
witte.

When

drammes
all

of sleepe, than syxe ounces of

was hushe, and the watchmen

asleepe, hee tooke the bodye of hys brother,

mockage, shauing

off

set

fast

and in

the hayre of theyr right cheekes,

he returned home, beyng right gladly enterteyned of

The Kyng seeyng hys deuises no better

hys mother.

to proceede, but
theefe

still

for

ought he coulde imagine the

beguyled hym, waxed woonderous wrath

howbeit, determining to leave nothing unattempted,

rather then to let such a villayne escape scot free, he
built yet another trappe to catch the foxe in.

had

at

that time abiding in hys courte

He

goodly

gentlewoman, his onely daughter, whome he tenderly

loued from her childhood.

This Lady he made of his

counsayle, willing her

by the duety of a chylde,

the time,

abandon chastity

for

making

hirselfe

to

HERODOTUS ON RAMESES

B.C. 1200]

common

stalant for all that

183

III.

would come, on condition

they shoulde sweare to tell her the subtilest and the

sinfullest prancke that ever they had played in all

theyr

and who

lyfe tyme,

so confessed the facts lately

the

atchieued in imbesileing
stealing
suffer

away the

to

theefe,

him

Kings

treasure,

The gentlewoman

depart.

and

and not

to lay hold on,

obeying

her

fathers will, kepte open house, having a greate repayre

unto her out of

all

partes of the countrey.

Now

the

theefe whyche knewe full well to what intente the

Kyng had

done thys, desirous to bee at oast wyth

hys daughter
that

for a nighte,

myghte ensue, beeyng

and fearing the daunger

of a verie

pregnaunt and

readie witte, deuised yet another shifte wherewythall

Kyng

to delude the
brother that
his cloake,

he

daughter lay,
she

he strake

was dead, and

off the

hande of hys

closely carying

it

under

where the Kings

repayred to the place

who demaunding hym the question as

rest, receyued of him this aunswere,

had done the

that the sinfullest acte that ever he committed, was to

cut off his brothers head, being inueigled in a snare
in the

Kings

treasurie, but the subtilest in that

deceyued a fort of

appoynted to

dronken

asses,

watch the body.

he had

whome the King had

The Lady that had

listned to his tale, hearing the newes she longed

stretched out her

hand

to lay hold

tilly presenting her with

for,

on him, who sub-

the hand of his

brother

(which beeing darke, she fast gripped instead of his

owne), he conueyed himselfe from her and was no more

HERODOTUS ON RAMESES

184
seene.

The King heereof

aduertised,

[B.C. 1200

III.

was stricken with

so great admiration as well of his wit in denising,

as

his boldnesse in aduentnring, that forthwith he caused

notice to he genen throughout all partes of his gouerne-

ment/that
thinges

in case the party

woulde disclose himselfe, and stand to his

mercy, he

woulde not only yeeld him

also indue and honour

as

were

fit

him with

for a person of

My yonker yeelding credite

foorth

whiche had done these

but

such excellent wisedome.

to the

and

presence,

in

free pardon,

so princely rewards

Kings promise, came

described

himselfe,

with

whome Rampsinitus ioyning his daughter in marriage,

did

him

him the

greatest honour he could deuise, esteeming

man

for the wisest

holding

it

that liued upon the earth,

for certayne, that the

all others in wisedom,

comparable to

Egyptians excelled

amongst whome he judged none

The same King

hym.

(say they) whiles

he was yet liuing, trauelled so far under the ground,

till

he came to the place which the Graecians

seates infernall,

where

h'e

call

the

played at dyce with the god-

desse Ceres, and sometimes winning, sometimes losing,

he returned againe at length, being rewarded by her

with a mantle of

gold.

In the meane space while

Rampsinitus undertooke this

voyage

to

hell,

tRe

Aegyptians kept holy day, prolonging the celebration

till

such time as he retyred backe againe, which

solemne

our

memory hath been

But whether

this be the cause of

obseruance,

duely celebrated.

since

that sacred festiuall, I dare not auowe, howbeit, the

DIODORUS ON RAMESES

B.C. 1200]

me

priests shewed

185

III.

wonen

a certayne cloake,

the

in

space of one daye, wherewith once a yeare they attyre

some one of theyr petie

hys eyes wytli a myter.

they conduct
the temple

the

to

hyghway

moreoner

that leadeth to

whereafter they

of the goddesse Ceres,

haue placed
place,

hym

vicares, blinding

Beeing in thys sorte attyred,

hym, they leaue hym grabling

and departe their waye.

To whome

in that

incontinently

resorte two wolues, conducting the priest to the temple

aforesayde,
furlongs,

whyche

distaunte from the city twentie

is

where hauing accomplished certayne

the wolues leade

hym

All these thyngsthey doubt not

true, which

them

we leaue

to euery

it

to reporte for certayne

mans lyking

haue

meete to make relation of such things as

I heard amongst them, going no

thyngs than hearesay,

when Proteus

to iudge of

For myne owne parte

as they deserue.

thought

rytes,

backe agayne to the same place.

who spent

died, his
all

According to Diodorus

(i.

62)

his coffers,

and

of his spirit,

and

filling

The poorness

heaping up wealth.

many

son Remphis succeeded him,

time in

his

farther in

his sordid covetousness was such, that they would not

suffer

him

to

with anything,

part

either

for

the

worship of the gods, or the good of mankind; and

therefore,

more

instead of a

like

name

good steward th^n a king,

for valour

vast heaps of treasure

and noble

of the kings that ever were before him

he

had a treasure

acts,

he

left

behind him, greater than any

of four

for it is said

hundred thousand talents of

REIGN OF RAMESES

i86

gold and

may

silver.

[B.C. 1166

IV.

In confirmation of this statement

be mentioned the words of Herodotus

(ii.

124),

who

says that in the reign of Rhampsinitus there was a

perfect distribution of justice, and that all

carried on

successful trading

by means of

in

This prosperity was the

a high state of prosperity.

result of the

Egypt was

which Rameses

III.

his ships in the Mediterranean

and Red Sea, and of the freedom which every merchant

enjoyed in managing his own business in his own way.

tiiunir

]
(
Ra-usr-Maat-setep-en-Amen, son of the Sun, Rameses-meri-Amen-Ra-heq-maat.

Ra-meses

IV., the prince of Maat, the beloved of

Amen-Ra, was the son

of Raineses III.,

and he was

associated in the rule of the

kingdom during the

four years of his fathers

His Horus name appears

to

have been, Mighty

life.

Blill, living in

festivals, like [his] father

himself

Lord

Maat, the lord of

Ptah-Tanen,

of the shrines of

last

and he styled

Nekhebet and Uatchet,

protector of Egypt, smiter of the Nine Bows, the

Horus

of gold,

mighty of

prince, child of the gods,

to

exist.

great of strength,

who maketh

the two lands

Rameses IV. reckoned the years

reign from the time

i

years,

when he became

of his

co-regent, but

EXPEDITION TO HAMMAMAT

B.C. 1166]

his reign as sole king of

On

years.

Egypt only

187

lasted six or seven

a stele published by Lepsius, 1

it is

stated

that the Eetennu, or people of Northern Syria, brought

much

must be the statement of

tribute to him, but this

a scribe

who was

also

a courtier and who, perhaps

unconsciously, exaggerated an affair of trade and barter

into the
to

payment of

work the mines

Rameses IY. continued

tribute.

in the Sina'itic Peninsula, hoping, no

doubt, to draw therefrom as great revenues as those

The great event

which his father obtained from them.

of his

reign was

Hammamat,

an expedition into the Valley of

M

i.e.,

nn

Ant Re-

hennu, which seems to have been undertaken in the

first

instance for the purpose either

revolt

of

among the quarrymen who worked

crushing a
at

Bekhen,

where the quarries were situated, or of

AAAAAA

nomad

driving out some

peoples from the valley.

He

could not have wished to work the quarries there, for

not being engaged in great building operations he had

no use

for large quantities of stone.

Hammamat

An

inscription at

dated in his third year, states that he

ordered a road to be built through the valley from the

Red Sea, so that caravans might make

way thmugh it with greater speed and safety

Nile to the
their

he also commanded that a temple to the goddess

should be built in a suitable part of
consisted of a

number
1

it.

Isis

The expedition

of skilled mining engineers, with

Derikmaler

pi.

iii.
,

223c.

THE ROAD TO THE RED SEA

i88

[B.C. 1166

130 quarrymen and masons, 5000 soldiers with their

officers,

2000 of Pharaohs workmen, 50 Matchaiu or

nnmber

police, a large

of scribes

and other

800 of the Aperiu,

officials,

and

who belonged

neighbourhood. The total number

men engaged in the expedition was 8368 men, and
900 men died of hard work, or disease, or wounds*

to the tribes of the

of

between the time of

leaving

its

Egypt and the time

Provisions for the expedition were taken

of its return.

from Egypt in ten carts or waggons, each of which

was drawn by twelve oxen, and by large numbers

men who brought

produce

loads

and garden

of bread, fish,

the work which the expedition was sent to

perform was inaugurated or finished by a solemn

at

of

which oxen and calves were

sacrificed,

feast,

and incense

burned, and libations of wine poured out, and songs

of praise sung.

Rameses IY. carried out certain small repairs at

Memphis, Tell el-Yahudiyeh, Abydos, and Karnak,
his

name being found on

last-named

place

like that of

as

Rameses

II.

buildings

several

prenomen

his

Rameses IV.

built

a large

Tombs

of the

somewhat unusual plan.

at

so

this

much

he was able to usurp the

buildings of his great ancestor without

Valley of the

was

tomb

much

trouble.

for himself in the

Kings

at

It is entered

Thebes on a

by a

staircase

with an inclined plane in the centre, made, probably,

to enable

the stone sarcophagus to be lowered easily

REIGN OF RAMESES

B.C. 1166]

into the tomb,

and consists of three main

the granite sarcophagus.

the

corridors,

and the large hall which contains

six side chambers,

part,

l8g

V.

The

walls are, for the most

ornamented with scenes and texts of chapters from

Book

of the Gates, and with large figures of

various gods

who

are occupied in preventing the king

from being hindered by the fiends and demons who would

obstruct his passage in the underworld

on some of

the walls are scenes and extracts relating to the passage

of the sun through the hours of the night in the under-

The

world.

mummy

of the

buried in this tomb, but as

Amen-hetep
from

II. in

1898,

it
it

king was, presumably,

was found in the tomb of

must have been removed

original resting-place to that

its

period towards the close of the

many

so

tomb during the

XXth

of the royal sepulchres in that

Dynasty, when

neighbourhood

were broken into and plundered by professional robbers

of tombs.

Ra-usr-Maat-sekheper-en-Ra,
Ra - mes - f - su - Amen - meri - Amen.
Rameses V.
Rameses
others

is

son

of

the

thought to have been the brother of

by some, and the son of Rameses

III.

Sun,

he reigned about four

years,

III.

by

and adopted

See Sethe, Untersuchungen zur Gescliiclite und Alterthumskunde

Maspero, Hist. Anc., tom. ii. p. 482 and Brugsch,
Egypt under the Fharaohs vol. ii. p. 178.
1

Aegyptens, p. 59

REIGN OF RAMESES

igO
as

name

Horns

his

He

Mighty

built a

[B.C. 1166

VI.

Maat Amen,

Bull,

tomb

himself in the

for

Valley of the Tombs of the Kings at Thebes, but

mummy

was, presumably, buried in

found in the tomb of Amen-hetep

had been removed

at

for safety

of the

the close

XXth

though

it,

was

it

afterwards usurped by his successor Raineses VI.

it

his

was

1898, where

II. in

it

during the troubled times

His building

Dynasty.

operations and repairs were insignificant.

Amen-Maat-meri-neb, son

of

the

Sun,

Ra-meses-

Amen-neter-heq-Annu.

Rameses VI. was the son

of Raineses III., but

some

think that he never ascended the throne of Egypt.

His Horus name, was Mighty Bull, great one of

might,

vivifier
jl

|J,

of

the

two lands,

and he styled himself

-o

Lord of the

shrines of Nekhebet and Uatchet, strong in valour,

subduer of

hundreds of thousands, the Horus of gold,

mighty of years like Ta-thenen, prince, lord of

festivals,

protector of Egypt, filling the land with great monu-

ments

to his

his daughter

name.

was Ast,

The name
or Isis.

of his mother

From

and of

the scenes and

inscriptions ornamenting the walls of a rock-hewn

tomb

BEQUEST OF PENNUT

B.C. 1166]

igi

near the village of Anibeh, which is situated near

Ibrim in Nubia, we learn that the Royal son of

Pennut,

Kesh, called

AAAAAA

dedicated the

Pj

revenues from a piece of land for ever to the maintenance of the service which was connected with the

The

worship of the statue of the king.

inscriptions

give the length and breadth and superficies of this parcel

of land,
cubits.

which contained an area of 320,000 square

Pennut was a trusted

was overseer of the

official

districts in

of the king, and

Nubia, and Uauat, and

Akita, wherein the gold mines were situated, and he

was governor

proves that the office of

in

existence, but

is

it

Royal son of Kesh

doubtful

Rameses YI. possessed any

some would have us

real

did not undertake

The

but

Thebes,

small repairs in

if

it

It

of

still

authority in Nubia, as

building

it

on

buildings

carried
is

at

out certain

certain

that

he

on any large

operations

greatest of all the buildings of his time

was the tomb which he usurped and added

Valley

was

indicates that

believe.

The occurrence of his name

Karnak seems to show that he

scale.

The tomb

of the neighbouring town.

the

Tombs

was made originally

the

of
for

Kings

Rameses

at

V., but

to in the

Thebes.
it is

clear

from the various inscriptions which were placed there

by

visitors in

was believed

the Greek and

to be the

Tomb

of

Roman Periods that it

Memnon it seems that
;

this belief arose because a portion of the

prenomen of

MUMMY AND TOMB OF RAMESES

192

the king, Neb-Maat-Ra,

is

identical with the whole of

prenomen of Amen-hetep

the

originally

known

as the

and Lepsins called

it

[B.C. 1166

VI.

Tomb

The tomb was

III.

of the Metempsychosis,

I No. 9

it

consists of three

corridors which lead into two rectangular chambers of

nneqnal

size,

and from these two further corridors lead

into two rectangular chambers of unequal size, one of

which held the sarcophagus, which

first

is

now broken.

The

three corridors and the two chambers into which

they lead probably represent the tomb of Rameses V.,

for it is clear that the second

four rectangular pillars,

sarcophagus of that king.

chamber, which contains

was intended

to receive the

When Rameses

YI. usurped

the tomb he penetrated further into the mountain, and

added the

which
which

last

two corridors and the two chambers into

The scenes and the

them are of interest, and

they lead. 1
relate to

inscriptions

consist for

the most part of extracts from the religious works which

the Book of the
Gates of the Underworld, and the Book of what is

were popular at that period,

in the

Underworld,

etc.

i.e.,

The most valuable

of all are

the astronomical representations which are found on

the vaulted ceiling of the sarcophagus chamber;
tables

of stars

declared by
b.c.

M.

Biot to have been drawn up

about

1240, but later investigators make them about

forty-six years later.

1

the

which are found on the walls were

For the plan

plate 54.

of the

Near the
tomb

star tables is a scene in

see Mission Avcheologique, tom.

iii.

REIGN OF RAMESES

B.C. 1166]

which the Boat of the Sun

is

VII.

193

passing over the back of

the double human-headed god Aker,

who was

the personification of the passage through or under the

earth into which the sun entered in the evening, and

From

from which he emerged in the morning.

papyrus preserved at Liverpool

tomb of Bameses YI. was broken

into

reign of Rameses IX., and

it

and robbed

was probably

in the

at this period

that the kings sarcophagus was smashed to pieces

mummy

of

tomb

Amen-hetep

of

Rameses YI. was removed

II.,

wherein

it

appears that the

it

the

for safety to the

was found early

in

1898.

Ra-usr-Maat-Amen-meri-setep-en-Ra,

son

of

the

Sun, Ra-meses-ta-Amen-neter-heq-Annu.

Rameses YIL,

the emanation of Amen, the divine

prince of Anna, was probably the son of Rameses III.,

and his reign,

was very

most of his brothers,

like the reigns of

short, probably not exceeding five or six years.

Of the events

of his reign nothing

is

known, and

it

seems that he neither built temples nor repaired them

the few buildings upon which his

have been usurped by him.

to
1

name occurs appear

The Horus name of

For the plan of the tomb see Mission Archeologique, tom.

plate 50.
2

See Goodwin, Aegyptische Zeitschrift 1874,

,

VOL. V.

p. 62.

iii.

TOMB OF RAMESES

I94
tlie

[B.C. 1166

VII.

king was Mighty Bull, the gracious

AAAAAA
,

nificant

monarch

(?)

king,

and we find that this

insig-

styled himself Lord of the shrines of

Nekhebet and Uatchet, protector of Egypt, subduer of

the Nine Bows, the Horus of gold, mighty of years
like Ra, prince, mighty one

of festivals

Amen-Ra, the king of the gods.

that the

titles,

These

like

unto

facts prove

which under the XVIIIth Dynasty

represented valour and deeds of prowess on the part of

the king, were adopted by the successors of Rameses
III. as a

matter of form.

Rameses VII.

a tomb in the Valley of the

Thebes, but

it

was not as large

predecessors and successors.

built himself

Tombs of the Kings at

as many of those of his

It consisted of a hall

and

ornamented

a corridor, the walls of the latter being

with texts from the religious books of the period, and

scenes

in

which the

king

burning incense and

is

pouring out a libation before the god Ptah-Seker-Asar, 1

and the king, dressed in a garb of

Osiris, is

the ceremony of purification, which

priestly official

whose

title is

undergoing

performed by the

is

am-khent
,

dr

0nthe
(fib-

walls of the hall are figures of the goddesses Urt-liekau

and Sekhet-Bast-urt-hekau,

and on the

ceiling

are

tables of the risings of stars, and scenes in which are

number

crocodile,

cophagus

of celestial personages

and animals,

hippopotamus, ram (or cow),

is

ornamented with a double

1

etc.

e.g\, lion,

The

sar-

line of inscription

Or Ra-IIeru-khuti Temu Khepera.

REIGN OF RAMESES

B.C. 1133]

and with figures of

Isis,

VIII.

195

Nephthys, winged uraei,

etc

1
.

In the small chamber behind the hall are scenes in

which the king

is

offering

|ij

to Osiris,

sentations of the Boat of the Sun, of the

and repre-

Tet with the

attributes of Osiris, etc.

Ra-usr-Maat-khu-en-Amen, son
Amen-meri-Amen.

Rameses

VIII.,

the

spirit

of the Sun,

Ra-meses-

Amen, beloved

of

Amen, was probably a son of Rameses

III.

of

he must

have reigned but a very short time, and of the events

of his reign

we know nothing.

seems that he was

It

unable to build a tomb for himself in the Valley of the

Tombs
on.

of the Kings,

and as his name

any of the buildings

at

is

not found

Thebes we may assume that

he neither usurped nor repaired them.

Lord of
the land,

Sekha-en-Ra-meri-Amen,

lord

of risings,

Ra-meses-sa-Ptah.

Rameses IX. was probably a son

and he reigned eighteen years alone
1

The tomb

is

of

Rameses

III.,

as the nineteenth

described in Memoir es Miss. Arch

tom.

iii.

pp. 1-8.

REIGN OF RAMESES

196
year of
it

liis

reign was the

first

[B.C. 1133

IX.

of that of his successor

that Rameses X. must have been associated

is clear

with him in the rule of the kingdom before his death.

Rameses IX. was neither a warrior nor a

name

his

will be

builder, but

always remembered in connexion with

the great prosecution of the robbers of tombs which

was carried out by the government

knowledge of

the

prosecution

his day

of

our

derived from

is

the

Abbott Papyrus in the British Museum, and from

papyri in the collections of Lord Amherst and in the

From
Museum at Liverpool
may gather that there existed at
1

documents we

these

Thebes, and no doubt

in other parts of the country also, a well organized

gang of expert thieves who lived by breaking into the

tombs and carrying

off the

small and valuable objects

which they found in them, as well as the ornaments

and jewellery with which the mummies of well-to-do
people were

always

decked.

amount

certain

of

plundering of tombs must always have gone on in

Egypt, for the large quantities of funeral furniture

which was invariably deposited in

have proved an

irresistible

poverty-stricken

thief,

We

know

otherwise

it

many

to

professional

would have been impossible

gifts to the

See Birch, Select Papyri,

ii.

whether

tombs must

or

not.

that Rameses III. was a wealthy man, for

have made such great

tom.

fine

temptation

(3rd series)

vol.

ii.

for

him

to

temples of Heliopolis,

plates 1-8

Chabas, Melanges

Newberry, Amherst Papyri

Maspero, Une Enquete Judiciaire a Thebes, Paris, 1871.

p.

24

and

ROBBERY OF ROYAL TOMBS

B.C. 1133]

1 97

Memphis, and Thebes, and that he must have

left

behind him great wealth which his sons inherited.

These sons devoted

pleasure

or

soldiers to

indolence,

to

leading lives

they neither

for

war nor built temples

like their ancestors

built large

themselves

led

of

their

honour of the gods

in

on the other hand, most of them

and costly tombs

and

for themselves,

pretty certain that they were buried with great

it

is

pomp

and ceremony, and that many costly ornaments and

much

valuable jewellery were buried with them.

Under the
Rameses

VI.,

]ax rule of

Rameses

IV.,

Raineses V.,

Rameses VII., and Rameses VIII., the

power of the government had become weak, and the

work

of the state

manner
duties,

their

was carried out

in a very perfunctory

the overseers and inspectors neglected their

and the subordinate

officials

took advantage of

remissness and neglected theirs also, and as a

workmen who were under them scamped their

We know that the royal tombs were at one

result the

work.

time well cared

for,

and that the priests and

officials in

charge of them kept them in good order; offerings

were offered up at the appointed seasons, and

sacrifices

were made, and when any portion of the tombs needed

repair

it

was carried out

at once.

But under the

late

Rameses the robbers of tombs, seeing the weakness of

the central government, turned their
the tombs of high

officials

attention from

and wealthy commoners

to

the sepulchres of the kings, which formed one of the

principal features

of interest

at

Thebes.

Little

by

A thiefs CONFESSION

ig8

[B.c. 1133

they corrupted the master-masons and workmen

who were attached to the great royal Theban necropolis,
and eventually a number of scribes and other officials
who performed certain duties in connexion with it
little

joined them, and the plundering of the tombs of the

As

kings then began on a large scale.

in

to the

manner

which the thieves worked we obtain a very good

idea from the confession of one of the thieves which

preserved in one

of

Lord Amhersts papyri

is

he says

that he and his companions effected an entry into the

tomb

of Sebek-em-sa-f

where the mummies of the king

and queen Nub-kha-s were buried, and that the tomb

itself

was

was protected by masonry, and that

filled

over

up with broken

with slabs

entirely,

we found

the venerable

There were two daggers

many amulets and necklaces

his

head was covered with

of the king

The inner

(or,

We

mummy

of the

swords) there,

of gold on his neck

gold,

and the venerable

was decorated with gold through-

case [of his

with gold and with

we demolished

and their inner cases which were

and

out.

entrance

and we found the [queen] lying there.

in them, and

mummy

its

which were covered

These

of stones.

opened their coffins

king.

stones,

silver,

coffin]

was decorated

both within and without,

and was covered with precious stones of every kind.

We

tore off the gold

able mummy
necklaces

which we found on the vener-

of the god,

and the amulets and the

which were on his neck, and the materials

on which they rested.

And having found

the royal

B.C. 1133]

NAMES OF THE PRINCIPAL THIEVES

wife also

we

and then

we burnt

the

tore off all that

funeral

which we

furniture

mummies, and which

and copper

found

we found on

likewise

carried off

found

with

and

[consisted of] gold,

the

silver,

and we divided the gold which we

vases,

upon the venerable mummies

and the

it

We

their swathings.

I 99

of these two gods,

amulets, and the necklaces, and the cases

into eight parts.

names

The

their

man who

the

beaten

and hands, and

feet

that the

of

were

thieves

eight

the

some

of

it

thieves

were

with a stick

upon

eight

was

by these means

turned kings evidence

It is quite clear that the thieves could not

been

was made

and say what he and his friends had done.

to speak

into the

tomb

kept,

necropolis

have broken

of Sebek-em-sa-f if a proper

and

some of the

that

must have helped them

watch had

officials

of

to dispose

who took

the

of the

stolen property.

The

goods could

the funeral furniture to the relatives

of people

sell

who had

priests

the wealthy;

was

to the

to plunder the

tombs

died recently, and thus

interest of both priest

of

over the stolen

and thief

many an

object

made

it

under

one

THE TOMB ROBBERS

200 PROSECUTION OF
dynasty

[B.C. 1133

been re-used under another, and as the

lias

space in the mountains and elsewhere in Egypt available for sepulchres has always been very limited,

a tomb was used over and over again.

many

This fact has

not been sufficiently taken into consideration in dating

Egyptian antiquities, and

able discussion
of

many

among

it

has given rise to consider-

archaeologists concerning the age

objects of an important character.

was maintained

tomb

in good order as long as the relatives

and descendants of the deceased provided an endow-

ment

sufficient for

the purpose

when

an end the tomb was abandoned, and

plundered by the professional robber, or

was quietly removed by the

and his furniture used

The

prosecution

for a

of

came

this

to

was either

it

occupier

its

priest of the necropolis

new

the

burial.

thieves

undertaken

by

Rameses IX. began on the eighteenth day of the third

month

of the season Shat, in the 14th year of his reign,

and the court of inquiry was formed by Kha-em-Uast,

TA

/vs

the

g- vernor

f Thebes, the trustee

of the property of the priestesses of Amen-Ra called Nes/WVW\

f)

Amen,

and the herald of Pharaoh called

Nefer-ka-Ra-em-pa-Amen,
and these

officials

employed

U3
J
to

LJ

t|
I

help them

in

their

investigations the head of the police,

|

Pa-ser-aa, the governor of the Necropolis,

(j (|

[X];

some

BY THE EGYPTIAN GOVERNMENT

B.C. 1133]

officers of police; Paibauk,

(J (j

the scribe of the governor of the

the

^^

(j

city

201

Paia-neferu,

chief scribe

of

the

i
governor of the treasury
khau,

and two

priests called Pa-an-

Ur-Amen,

and

(3

AAAAAA

milling

This body of high

the Yalley of the

Tombs

that

the governor

reported to

the

first

Amen-hetep

of

I.,

evidence,

have

to

found to be uninjured.

went through
Thebes and

at

tomb which they

which

had

possibly on untrust-

been

broken

into,

stele

was

still

in

of

ruins,

which represented the king

with his dog Behuka,

his legs,

was

They examined the tomb

Antef, and though the building itself was

they found that the

been

Kha-em-Uast by the sub-

governor Pa-ser,

worthy

Kings

of the

inspected the tombs there

examined,

officials

j^l

between

standing; and when they came to

the tomb of Sebek-em-sa-f they found that the thieves

had

got

mummies

into

the

of the king

chamber

and queen.

the commission examined

had

really

among the

been broken

into,

other nine damage

of

had wrecked the

Of ten tombs which

they only found one which

which the thieves had made

A number

and

to

though they discovered

made by

the attempts

break through the walls.

tombs of private persons had been entered

PAI-KHAREI TURNS KINGS EVIDENCE

202

by tbe

thieves,

who had

several priestesses of

ornaments, jewellery,

had committed
for

mummies

torn to pieces the

Amen
etc.

their search for

in

it

[B.C. 1133

seems as

the

if

of

gold

men who

were well known,

this act of sacrilege

they were at once arrested.

We

have

already

seen that the

men who

eight

plundered the tomb of Sebek-em-sa-f were brought

and that one of them con-

before

the commission

fessed,

but we are not told

inflicted

upon

mission was

man

what

them eventually.

still

the son of Khareui,

called

who had
in the

com-

the

inquiring into the robberies a certain

called Pai-kharei,

woman

punishment was

While

Little

^^

Cat,

(jfj

(j (j

and of the
j,

^
^

declared three years before that he had been

tomb

of

Queen

Ast, the wife of

Rameses

III.,

and had stolen some things therefrom and had destroyed

them, was arrested by order of the court, and having

been blindfolded was taken to the necropolis.

When

he had arrived there his eyes were uncovered and

he was ordered to make his way to the tomb from

which he said he had stolen certain things, but he

went into the tomb of one of the children of Rameses

and to the house of one of the

officials of

and declared that these were the places

to

which he

The commission, of course,

him, but though they beat him upon his

referred in his evidence.

disbelieved

II.

the necropolis,

HE BEARS FALSE WITNESS

B.C. 1133]

hands and

knew

feet

they could not make him admit that he

of any other place,

they were to cut

alive,

203

off his

and he told them that even

if

nose and ears, or to flay him

they could obtain no further information from

The commission had been appointed

him.

result of the

the

as

information concerning the robbery

royal tombs which

had been supplied by

of

Pa-ser, the

sub-governor of Thebes, to the governor Kha-em-Uast,

but

seemed as

it

if

the court of inquiry which

had

had appointed

commission

been

treated

the

with

contempt, for the tomb of Amen-hetep had not been

broken

into,

as Pa-ser

had

declared, and

Pai-kharei

had himself proved that the evidence which he had

given three years before was

false.

himself been deceived, or he had

against

tion

Either Pa-ser had

made a

serious accusa-

Pa - ser - aa,

governor of the royal necropolis, with the view of doing

him

a grievous injury in the eyes of the governor

Uast.

There

correct,

but that the court of inquiry made

is

Kha-em-

every reason to believe that Pa-ser was

its

examina-

tion of the royal tombs in a very perfunctory manner,

and that

it

did not, in consequence, examine into matters

so closely as it -should

have done.

It is interesting to

note that the tomb of Nub-kheper-Ra Antuf, which the

court of inquiry pronounced to be in sound condition,
,

had a hole

in

it

is

stated

by

its

own

report to have

two and a half cubits long, which had

been made by the thieves, who could have made their

THE PROSECUTION BREAKS DOWN

204

way through

it

into the

[B.C. 1133

tomb whenever they had an

opportunity of returning to their nefarious work.

fact that the

court

The

inquiry could regard a tomb

of

which had suffered such damage

to be in

sound con-

dition proves that they took a very optimistic view of

Pa-ser was extremely dissatisfied with the

the matter.
result of the

work of the commission, and he

governor Kha-em-Uast so in an angry

told the

wherein

letter,

he threatened to write and report the whole matter

the king.

How

the affair ended we

know

to

not, but it

seems that the governor found some means of shutting

mouth

the

of Pa-ser, and that the matter was never

brought before the king at

all.

What happened was

what has happened always, and what

happen

who

always

in a purely oriental court of inquiry

brings the charge

is

the

will

man

proved by the false-swearing

of hired witnesses to be either misinformed or a liar,

number

of

people

are

punished, and the guilty

the

udges and other

j

wrougfully

man

officials

and

accused

pours into the bosoms of

the gifts which blind the

eyes.

The

chief building

operations which

were under-

taken in the reign of Rameses IX. were carried on by

Amen-hetep, the high priest of Amen-Ra, who under

this

king enjoyed such influence and power as were

never possessed
official

says, in

by any of his predecessors.

an inscription which

is

This

dated in the

tenth year of the kings reign, that he took in hand the

restoration of certain buildings which were

first set

up

BUILDING OPERATIONS OF RAMESES

B.C. 1133]

time of Usertsen

in the
walls,

look upon.

Amen

made the whole

enough

It is curious

to find

still

himself a

edifice beautiful to

high priest

to find the

by the king, but

him going on

new house with

with copper
in

and that he rebuilt the

recording the restoration of the building by

himself, instead of

able

205

and repaired the columns, and provided new doors

of acacia wood, and

of

I.,

IX.

holts,

fine

it is

more remark-

to say that he built

wooden doors furnished

and that he made and

set

up a statue

Amen

honour of each of the high priests of

courtyard which he planted with trees.

in a

Hitherto

it

had been the proud boast of every great king that he

had repaired, or beautified, or added to the great temple
of Amen-Ra, the king of the gods, and that he had
made such and such gifts towards the maintenance of

the service of the god and of the exalted position of his

was a

priests.

It

priest of

Amen was

fatal

day for Egypt when the high

allowed by Rameses IX. to usurp

the proper functions of the king, but, on the other

hand, small blame must be attached to the high priest

for

usurping royal powers, for unless he and his imme-

diate predecessors
priests of

had done

Amen would have

so the brotherhood of the

been ruined.

None

of the

sons of Rameses III. had contributed by foreign con-

quests to the coffers of the priesthood, and this fact in

itself

was

sufficient

to

make the

priests

of

Amen

anxious about ways and means, for without the tribute

of vassal nations or the
trading, the buildings

money derived from

successful

and service of the great god of

high priest of Amen levies taxes

206

Thebes could not be maintained.

the

in

inscription

[B.c. 1133

In another place

already mentioned

we

are

Amen-Ra,

that Eameses IX., with the 1 gods Menthu,

Harmachis,

Ptali,

and Thoth

presence of Nes-Amen, a high

Amen, and

of

as witnesses,
official in

told

and in the

the priesthood

Nefer-ka-Ra-em-pa-Amen,

royal

the

solemnly gave to the high priest of Amen,

herald,

Amen-hetep, the son of Ramessu-nekht, the power to

levy taxes on the people for the support of the temple

and priesthood of Amen-Ra

Thus Rameses IX. by

solemn decree gave the greatest power which the king

Egypt

of

possessed,

the right to levy taxes on the

i.e.,

people and to raise money, into the hands of the high

who

priest,

for himself,

built a house of almost royal magnificence

and dedicated statues of his predecessors

in the courtyard thereof.

Four years

after this decree

was promulgated the prosecution of the robbers of

the royal tombs began

whether

initiative of the high-priest

the governor of the

city,

was due

it

Amen-hetep or

to the

to that

cannot be said, but we

of

may

assign the abortive nature of the results obtained by

the court of inquiry to the influence of the high priest

Amen, who had discovered that a

of

scribes

Amen

number

built himself

a large tomb

For the text see Lepsius, DenJcmaler,

iii.

pi.

237e

translation see Brugsch, Egypt under the Pharaohs, vol.

2

of

were implicated in the robberies.

Rameses IX.
1

large

and subordinate members of the priesthood of

3

in

the

and for a
ii.

p.

186 If.

No. 6 according to Lepsius, No. 12 according to Champollion.

REIGN OF RAMESES

B.C. 1133]

Valley of the

Tombs

he was buried.
corridors,

the

of the Kings, wherein presumably

and three

of a staircase

It consists

having four

first

20 J

X.

side

chambers, and

three large rectangular chambers which are joined by

two short corridors

phagus.

The

the last chamber held the sarco-

walls are ornamented with scenes from

the religious works which were popular at that period,

and with texts from the Book of praising Ra, and

from the Theban Recension of the Booh of the Bead ;
of the last-named work a text of Chapter CXXV.
appears on a wall

in

the

third

corridor

In the

sarcophagus chamber are some extremely interesting

astronomical texts and scenes

2
.

K feiWjgJ Minimal

Ra-nefer-kau-setep-en-Ra, son of the Sun, Ra-meses-

merer-Amen-kha-[em]-Uast.

Rameses

X., beloved of

Amen,

rising like

Thebes, was probably a son of Rameses

III.,

Ra

length of his reign did not exceed six or eight years

few papyri dated in his reign

small number

inscribed with his

Horus name
1

'

of miscellaneous

names and

titles,

and from these and

objects

which are

we know that the

Rameses X. was Mighty

Bull, rising

For a description of tlie tomb see Memoires Miss. Arch., tom.

and for a plan see plate 20.
See Lepsins, Ghronologie p. 109.

pp. 16-30,

iii.

of

exist,

in

and the


reign OF RAMESES

208

Ra] in Thebes,

[like

[B.c. 1133

X.

adopted as a matter of form the old title

shrines

himself,
the

Nekhebet and Uatchet, and

of

mighty of valour,

Horns

of gold,

Lord

of the

also

styled

two lands,

vivifier of the

mighty of years

He

Ptah-Tanen,

like

mighty
prince of kings, destroyer of the Nine Bows.

Rameses X.

Tombs

built himself a

Kings

of the

small and

it

at

tomb

Valley of the
is

it

relatively

seems not to have been completed

scenes and inscriptions are of

workmanship

in the

Thebes, but

is

poor.

little

the

and the

interest,

In many ways the tomb indicates

the increasing poverty of the kings of Egypt, and

seems as though the priests of

or

could not

afford

ornamented tomb

to

Amen

provide

either

a large

and richly

like the sepulchres of his predecessors;

moreover, both priests and king probably

was useless

it

would not

felt

that

it

to provide expensive funeral furniture, etc.,

which the thieves might

ordinate officials

other burials.

steal

and burn, or the sub-

of the necropolis carry off and

The prosecutions

of the

sell for

tomb robbers

which had taken place in the 14th and 16th years of

the reign of Rameses IX. had resulted in the beating

with sticks of a number of the robbers who belonged

to the lower classes, but they did not stop the plundering

of the

tombs.

In

the

first

year of

Rameses X. about sixty people were

the

reign

arrested,

of

pre-

sumably by order of the high priest of Amen-Ra,

the king of the gods, Amen-hetep, the son of the high

priest of

Amen

in the Apts

(i.e.,

Karnak and Luxor),

B.C. 1133]

TOMB ROBBERS AGAIN PROSECUTED

20g

Rameses-nekht, and were charged with plundering

royal

the

tombs.

The tombs

of the

kings of the

Middle Empire had been probably cleared out by the

thieves by this time, for we learn that the tombs of
Seti

T.

and Rameses

II.

The ringleaders appear

who were attached to

Amen and
and

to

were now attacked by them.

have been priests and scribes

the

service of the

temples ol

other gods, and they succeeded in stealing

selling large

quantities of the funeral furniture

which had been deposited in the chambers near the

entrances of the tombs of Seti

number

of

women were

I.

and Rameses

II.

implicated in the theft s, and

it

probable that these disposed in the daytime of the

is

objects

which their husbands and brothers had stolen

during the night.

In fact the more the document

which records the arrest of the sixty suspected persons

considered, the

is

numbers of the

more

officials

clear

western bank at Thebes were

interested

becomes that large

it

and others who lived on the

in the robberies.

connected with

The

thieves

and

must have

been introduced into the tombs by the masons and

workmen who had helped to construct them, and they

were told what to seek and where to look by those who
had planned the tombs and who had probably
the

at

burial

ceremonies.

All

assisted

who remember how,

some thirty years ago, whole villages on the western

bank of the Nile at Thebes lived ostensibly by farming,
1

p.

See Goodwin in Aegyptische

61

Zeitschrift,

1873, p.

39

ff

VOL. V.

1874,

REIGN OF RAMESES

210

[B.C. 1133

XI.

but actually by plundering ancient tombs and selling

what they found

to travellers

condition

exactly the

and others, will understand

things which

of

existed in the days of the later

must

have

Eameses kings.

The

modern thieves ransacked the tombs by

knowledge

with the

and

help

of

night, often

government

the

them from doing so,

and those men were the most successful who were
officials

who were paid

lucky enough to

.find

to prevent

the

shafts

and tunnels which

the thieves had sunk and driven in ancient days into

the rock-hewn tombs of the great Theban necropolis.

The

thieves of old cared chiefly for amulets

made

of

gold and precious stones and for jewellery in general,

and when they had stripped the mummies of such

things

they

left

the

papyri

and

articles

of funeral

furniture strewn on the floors of the tombs; some of

the greatest treasures of European

of

objects

which

were

tossed

Museums

aside

consist

them

by

as

worthless.

10
-

S &IM?] CililP]

Ra-kheper-Maat-setep-en-Ra, son

Neb

of the Sun,

ta

Ra-

messu[-meri]-Amen.

Rameses XI. adopted as his Horus name the

Mighty Bull, whom Ra hath made to rise,

title

of his reign, which

must have

B.C. 1133]

STORY OF THE PRINCE OF BEKHTEN

been a very short one, nothing

this king built a

tomb

neither a tomb nor

is

for himself

mummy

21

known. 1

Whether

cannot be

said,

inscribed with his

but

name

has yet been discovered.

Formerly in Egyptological books which dealt with

history and chronology

it

was customary

to insert after

Eameses XI. a king whose prenomen was Usr-MaatRa-setep-nu-

(or,

en)

Ra

|J

nomen was Ra-meses meri Amen

and whose

and
1

jjj,

he was usually called Rameses XII.

This king

made known

which records

by the famous

to us

stele

is

the story of the Possessed Princess of Bekhten, of

which the following brief summary must be given.

The king Rameses, beloved of Amen, was according to

wont in Western Mesopotamia, and the chiefs of all
the lands came to pay homage to him and to offer him
his

gifts

each chief brought according to his power, some

gold, others lapis-lazuli,

and others turquoise, but the

Bekhten added

to his gifts his eldest daughter,

prince of

who was
her,

a beautiful

and when she came

her a royal wife.

Rameses was pleased with

girl.

to

Egypt with him he made

In the 15th year of the reign of

Rameses an envoy came from the prince of Bekhten

and asked the king of Egypt

to send a skilled physician

The two vases from the Serapeum which are inscribed with his
are figured in Mariette, Le Serapeum de Memphis Paris,
1857, plate 22, Nos. 6 and 7.
1

name

212

THE GOD KHENSU GOES TO BEKHTEN

to his country to heal the princes

daughter Bent-reshet,

the younger sister of the royal wife to

had been given

of Ra-neferu

Rameses summoned

all

presence, and asked

them

[B.C. 1133

whom

the

the sages of his court to his

to choose

from among them-

and their

selves a skilled physician to go to Bekhten,

choice

upon

fell

When

the

name

Thereupon

in Egypt.

royal

Tehuti-em-heb.

scribe

the Egyptian physician arrived in Bekhten he

found that Bent-reshet was possessed of a devil which

he could not cast

out, therefore the prince of

sent a second time to

Egypt

for help,

Bekhten

and besought the

Rameses

king to send a god to heal his daughter.

then went into the temple and asked the god Khensunefer-hetep

if

agreed to do
boat,

he would go to Bekhten to deliver the

from the power of the demon, and the god

princess

The

so.

god was placed in a

figure of the

and escorted by a large number of horses and

chariots arrived in

Bekhten

after a

journey of seventeen

months.

The

prince

of

great ceremony,

Bekhten

welcomed

the

god

with

daughter was

and as soon as his

brought into the presence of the god his saving power

healed her straightway.

The

devil

of the princess said to

Khensu,

is

us,

thy coming unto

who was

driven out

Grateful and welcome

great god, the vanquisher

of the hosts of darkness; Bekhten

is

thy

inhabitants thereof are thy slaves, and I

servant

and I

will depart

came that I may gratify

city,

the

am

thy

unto the place whence I

thee, for unto this end hast

AND HEALS THE POSSESSED PRINCESS

B.C. 1133]

thou

come

prince

of

when

At the

hither.

Bekhten made a

request

the

feast in his honour,

and

devils

was over Khensu gave the command, and the

it

as the devil

As soon

which he loved.

devil departed to the country

to

213

was gone the prince of Bekhten determined

keep the Egyptian god in his city always, but at the

end of three years, four months, and

left

the country in the form of a

away

When

to Egypt.

gifts

knew

Egypt he sent back

his

and with a large escort of

and horses to Egypt, wherein

soldiers

of gold and flew

the prince of Bekhten

that the god had departed to

image with many

days Khensu

five

hawk

it

arrived in the

Now

33rd year of the reign of Rameses.

there are

several points in the narrative, to say nothing of the

we

that

grammar and

of

peculiarities

dealing

are

spelling,

which prove

with a version of a piece of

and not with a record of actual

legendary history,

Rameses XII.,

he was

facts.

In the

styled,

was never in Western Mesopotamia, and he

neither

place

first

received

gifts

from

country nor married the

but Rameses
of

one

[among]

kings

him and

like

to no

of

chiefs

that

daughter of one of them

II. did all these things,

Mighty Bull, the form

apply to

the

as

and the

titles

of risings, the stablished

Temu,

etc.,

other Rameses.

in

reality

We

must

Rameses

II.,

the story as having reference to

and this Rameses XII. must disappear

from the

list

of the kings of the

therefore

regard

text of the story

XXth

which has come down

Dynasty.

The

to us belongs to

REIGN OF RAMESES

214

a very late date, as Prof.

clearly the

work of the

w ho wished
r

and

Erman has proved

and

it is

priests of Khensu-nefer-hetep,

the great favour with which he

was regarded by Rameses

forget that the journey

occupied

1
,

spread abroad the fame of their god,

to

make known

to

[B.C. 1133

XII.

Finally,

II.

Bekhten

to

a period of seventeen

is

we must not
said to have

months, and

this

if

be true Bekhten must have been situated away in

Central or Eastern Asia.

fame

It is possible that the

of Raineses II., or of some greater Egyptian king,

have been carried to the far East by some nomad

but

it

is

quite certain that the

may

tribe,

renown of any of the

sons of Rameses III. was never spread abroad in this

fashion.

Ra-men-Maat-setep-en-Ptaij, son of the Sun, Ra-

meses-merer-Amen-kha-[em]Uast-neter-heq-Annu.

Rameses

XII.,

who was

formerly

XIII., chose for his Horus

Bull, beloved of (or, loving) Ra,

self,

Lord

known

name the

of the shrines of

as

title

Rameses

Mighty

and he styled him-

Nekhebet and Uatchet,

subduer of hundreds of thousands, the

Horus of

gold,

For the Egyptian text see

Rouge, Journal Asiatique, 1856-1858; Birch, Records of the
Past vol. iv. p. 53
and see my Egyptian Reading Boole.
1

E.

Aegyptische Zeitschrift, 1883, p. 54.

cle
,

TOMB OF RAMESES

B.C. 1133]

mighty one
Prince,

making

life,

of strength, vivifier of the

two lands,

and health

upon Maat,

strength,

f
yr~ui V

!i

mw

date

He

reigned

made known

is

fl

on

xC=s=io

INI
111

/wvw\

1111

but so far as

X A

mi
INI

known he

is

to us

which

the scribe Hern- a,

stele of

the

bears

resting

two lands.

to be at peace the

twenty-seven years, a fact which

by the

215

XII.

did not

undertake any war or military expedition, and was, to

all

indolent

appearances, content to lead the

his brothers or kinsmen.

life

of

In the temple of Khensu at

Thebes he decorated the walls of

the

outer

larger

chambers which had been left unornamented by Rameses

III.,

and he added a number of decorative scenes on

the walls and columns with cup-shaped capitals, in the

hypostyle hall of the same building, wherein he

presented making offerings to various gods.
of

Rameses XII. appears

temple of

Amen-Ra

carried out there

at

Abydos, and

it

The name

in a few places in the great

Karnak, but

it is

any restorations or

objects inscribed with his

doubtful

repairs.

if

name have been found

he

few
at

has been argued that he carried on

certain works there, but if he did, all traces of

have disappeared.
Valley of the

re-

is

He

Tombs

built a

of the

tomb

Kings

them

for himself in the

at Thebes, but the

decoration of the walls and ceilings of

its

two corridors

and three rectangular chambers was never finished

1

See Mariette, Abydos,

vol.

ii.

pi. 62.

216

her-heru, high priest OF AMEN,

in the last

chamber

is

[B.C. 1133

a shaft which seems to indicate

that the tomb builders of that time resorted to the old

form of the tomb with a deep

pit leading to the

mummy

chamber as a means of preventing thieves from plundering the tomb.

We
priest

have already seen how Amen-hetep, the high

of

Amen,

had

from

obtained

Rameses IX.

the right to levy taxes from the people, and

succeeded not only in preserving

how he

the privileges

and

power which his father Ra-meses-nekht had acquired,

but also in adding to them, and we have now to notice
that Her-Heru, the high priest of

Amen who

succeeded

him, was able to make himself at least the equal of the

king in power.

On some

walls of the temple of

of the reliefs found on the

Khensu

Heru,

at

Karnak we

see

Her-

with the uraeus, the symbol

of royalty, on his brow,

and we learn from the

texts

which accompany the scenes that he styled himself the

commander-in-chief of the army, and the governor of
the South and North; these reliefs were sculptured
whilst Rameses XII. was

still

alive,

and so we must

understand that before his death there were living in

Thebes two kings of Egypt, the one de jure and the

other de facto.

Her-Heru was

astute enough to

make

himself chief of the army, and, as his predecessor had

obtained the mastery over the treasury of the country,
his authority over the material and spiritual resources
of the country

was complete.

Of the circumstances

USURPS THE CROWN OF EGYPT

B.C. 1133]

217

which attended the death of Rameses XII. we know

nothing, and whether

Her-Heru waited

before he ascended the throne of

for

Egypt

him

to die

as the first

king of the XXIst (Theban) Dynasty, or whether he

compelled him to abdicate and retire and eat the bread
of banishment in the Great Oasis, as

But whilst

cannot be said.

was devoting

all

his

Brugsch thought, 1

Amen

the high priest of

energies

attainment of

the

to

the crown and throne of Egypt and of the

office

of

royal prince of Kesh, he steadily neglected the affairs

of the

Delta, and

took

invasion or to safeguard

no steps to protect
If he

its interests.

doing his best to break up the

from

it

had been

union between the

kingdoms of the South and North, which had cost

XVIIIth Dynasty so much trouble to

the kings of the

make, he could hardly have acted otherwise.

may, of course, have been good reasons

There

for his acting

when we remember
all parts of Egypt at

as he did in the matter, especially

that there must have existed in

that time

Rameses

many male descendants

III.,

each of

whom would

Rameses

II.

and

consider that he

had

of

more right to the throne of Egypt than the high

of

Amen.

priest

In Upper Egypt, however, no claimant of

this kind to the throne

would have had the smallest

chance of success, because during the period of the rule

of

Rameses IV.

of

Amen had

to that of

Rameses XII. the high

priests

succeeded in winning over to their side

Egypt under the Pharaohs

vol.

ii.

p. 201.

power of the priests OF AMEN

218

members

the principal

of the official class

[B.C. 1133

which had

sprung into being in Egypt, and in laying their hands

upon the endowments, both private and

public, of the

principal sanctuaries of the country of the South and

As the god Amen had been made

of Nubia.

the attributes of

all

usurp

to

the older gods of Egypt, and had

even been forced into the position of Osiris as god and

judge of the dead, so his priests had made themselves

the representatives of

all

the old nobility of Egypt, and

Their influence over the priests

the equal of the king.

and people of Memphis, Heliopolis, Tanis, and other

large cities of the

became

North was not

AA/VW\

so great,

neb-Tet

and thus

it

man whose name was Nes-su-Ba-

possible for a

sibly a descendant of

who was

Rameses

II., to

pos-

proclaim himself

king of Egypt and to establish himself king at Tanis,

the

of his

city

Rameses

par

great

ancestor

excellence.

and the House

But the high

priest of

of

Amen,

Son

AAMM
know, lord of the South, and Thebes
|

of

Amen, was, we

was his

capital

it

follows then that

Egypt was once more

divided into two kingdoms, the one ruled by a descendant

of the legitimate line of kings, and the other by the high
priest of

Amen, who attempted

he had usurped by means

Netchemet

to legalize the power which

of his marriage with the lady

(IViJJ-

Her-Heru was the founder

of the dynasty of priest-kings at Thebes, while at Tanis

B.C. 1133]

rival

HER-HERU THE FIRST PRIEST-KING

2ig

dynasty was founded by Nessu-Ba-neb-Tet,

whose name was Graecized by Manetlio under the form

of

Smendes

we must therefore

divide

the

XXIst

Kings

Dynasty of the kings of Egypt into two parts

of Thebes, and II.

I.

Kings of Tanis.

END OF

GILBERT AND RIVINGTON, LTD.,

8T.

VOL. V.

JOHNS HOUSE, CLERKENWELL,

E.C.

VICTORIA UNiVERSiTT

LIBRARY